World Rainforest Report #16

♦ Columbian Indians get half of Amazon.

♦ SustaitjaSiCitxf ♦ %hC Actions, ♦ A\pre.

Index

Burma
Letters-

ITTO Report — —4
Sarawak— —5
TFAP-

-8

-10

-13

-22

Sustai liability

Australia——
India ■■■ 16

World Roundup 19

Japan ■ — — —

New Guinea Is.— — 23

The Amazon — 26

GAIT —31

Netherlands — 32

Policy

Recominendations---33

Merchandise —35

Contacts 36

Donations—— -36

Subscriptions-

—36

Paul Richards and the
Korup National Park,
Cameroun,

This is an appeal for the conservation of one of the
most important rainforests in Africa which at the same
time will commemorate the works of Paul Richards, one
of the founders of the study of the ecology of tropical
rainforests.

The work required to set up the national park includes
rural development schemes in the surrounding area as
well as the provision of facilities for scientific, ad-
ministrative and ground staff for the Park. The plans for
the Park will make it of international status and applica-
tion will be made to have it designated a World
Heritage site. A complementary project is planned for
the establishment of a national park at Oban in Nigeria
so that the two parks will share a common international
boundary,

The family and friends of Paul Richards have set out
to raise 120,000 pounds to pay for the cost of the Paul
Richards Centre to be located in the Korup National
Park, The planning and building of the centre will be
carried out as part of the technical assistance provided
through the agreement between the World Wide Fund
for Nature and the Cameroun Government,

The forest in this area in west Camreoun is probably
the most species rich rainforest in Africa, It is very im-
portant for primates and about 25% of all African
species are thought to occur here. Other species of in-
terest are: an endemic water shrew, the golden cat, the
forest leopard, elephant and buffalo, the water chev-
rotain and the endangered Cameroun clawless otter.

Those interested can contribute in one of two ways: 1.
By cheque or hank order payable to Paul Richards
Korup Fund. To save costs, receipts will not be sent un-
less specifically requested. 2* By deed of covenant Be-
cause tax may be recoverable, we hope that people may
opt for thios method of payment Please write for a
form.

The address for all communication is: 5? Selwyn Rd.,
Cambridge, CB3 9EA, England.

World Council of Indigenous Peoples:
International Conference 1990 Tromso
Norway, 8-12 August

George Manuel, the WCIFs first president (1975-81)
started organising the Indigenous Peoples to a world-
wide association early in the 1970's. WCIP was founded
in October 1975 in Canada and is dedicated to abolish-
ing the possible use of physical and cultural genocide
and ethnocide, combatting racism, ensuring political,
economic and social justice of indigenous peoples; es-
tablishing and strengthening the concept of indigenous
and cultural rights, based on the principles of Human
Rights,

The upcoming conference will be an important step
for obtaining these measures. Forest peoples are an im-
portant part of this process.

Burma: A Country Under Seige

Burma, ruled since 1962 by a brutal military-socialist
regime, once recognised as one of the wealthiest
countries in Asia now suffers inexorable environmen-
tal social and economic destrue tion, the forest en-
vironment heading rapidly for the crisis point like those
of its neighbours - Bangladesh, India Thailand and
China.

This fact is not acknowledged, especially by the
military who blithely claim the forests still cover 57% of
the country's surface - a figure that was obsolete 30
years ago when the regime took power. In 1983,the UN
FAO satellite analysis of Burma re corded that the
amount of undisturbed forest was 21% and large quan-
tities of these areas had in fact suffered some dis
turban ce.

-fur** u>C CHH ft***

iters

WHOSE FRIENDS ?

It has been said that if Burma's forests continue to be
raped at the present rate, there will be nothing left
within five years. The people who made these com-
ments might have seriously over-estimated the extent of
the remaining resources. Thousand of tons of rainforest
logs are being cut and carried daily out of Burma,
especially along the Thai-Burmese border.

This rape of the forests and the foreign money it
brings fi nance the brutal military regime. Logging
contracts are gener ally for three years;in some instan-
ces the concessions comprise of 100,00 acres or more
and there appears to be no selective cutting, which
means logging companies are taking everything they
can.

Areas once rich with wildlife and trees are rapidly
becoming desert-like,the tribal people who have lived
in harmony with their environment for many years
are losing their way of life and their very chance for
survival,

SOURCES:

Dawn News Bulletin. Vol.2. No. 6. Published by

ALL BURMA STUDENTS DEMOCRATIC FRONT.

The BURMESE RELIEF CENTRE. May 1990
Newsletter.

Dear Editor,

In WRR 14 were a series of articles on Melbourne
RAG, one of Australia's highest profile RAG's.

Adjoining Robert Burrowed article were several
shorter pieces one of which was entitled "Our Friends
the Police" which I would like to draw some critical at-
tention to. My reason for doing this is simply to point
out the naivety and inconsistency of green groups
making "warm fuzzy" overtures to the repressive ap-
paratus of the state.

As Larry O'Loughlin, an editor of Chain Reaction
writes:

"...the ultimate power of a government is its
jails and its army and police force. Are we as greens ex-
pected to prop up the system that is being used against
us time and time again as we struggle to keep and
make the world a livable place ?" (Chain Reaction, p,19,
April 1990)

The assertion that the police refused to arrest block-
aders be cause of their "discipline" and the "high level
of dialogue" between themselves and the protestors
stands out as one of the silliest appraisals of police im-
aginable.

Our actions aren't any guarantee of invulnerability
from arrest: the cops act under orders. If ordered to
make arrests they do. If they don't arrest its because
they were ordered not to. Not because of some imagi-
nary magical power surrounding the activists involved.

Lets have some clear thinking on the subject - the
cops exist to protect private property. Those with the
most property get the most protection. In this
category I would include those who profit from the
destruction of our planet's forests.
Regards, Lewey,

Report on the Meeting of the International
Tropical Timber Organisation
Bali, May 1990.

John Revington.

Background.

The International Tropical Timber Agree-
ment (ITTA) was ratified on April 1, 1985,
and at present some 44 nations are party to
it. The aim of the agreement is to establish
a system of consultation and cooperation be-
tween consuming and producing countries
in the tropical timber trade. The Agree-
ment is run by the International Tropical
Timber Organisation (ITTO) which meets
annually. (The ITTO can be contacted directly at: San-
gyo Boeki Centre Bldg., 2 Yamashita - CHO, Naga -
Ku, Yokohama, Japan.)

Guidelines.

Although the ITTO pays lip-service to concerns about
the conservation of tropical forest, it is primarily a trade
organisation and it has done little to conserve forests.

At*the meeting in Bali, guidelines were adopted by the
organisation which call for all timber in the internation-
al trade come from sustainable sources by the year
2000. There are three major problems with this: 1. Most
of the world's unprotected tropical forest will be
destroyed or seriously degraded by the year 2000, 2, No
one has yet achieved sustainable yields in tropical forest
(see article in this issue of WRR), This means the
guidelines are based on a monstrous assumption, 3, The
guidelines are not enforceable anyway.

Narrow Focus*

In his opening address to the ITTO meeting, the Ex-
ecutive Director, Dr, B. C Y, Freezailah, had this to say
about the advocates of a ban on trade in tropical tim-
ber: "[They] have fallen victim to the tendency of con-
centrating a powerful search light on one aspect of a

problem whilst this results in creating darkness in the
surrounding areas,"

This is an extraordinary criticism for him to be making
in the light of the ITTO's own extremely narrow focus.

The focus on timber resources of forests to the ex-
clusion of the interests of indigenous peoples, the value
of non-timber products, and the survival of the global
eco-system could hardly be more "simplistic'' and "short
sighted", to use Dr Freezailah's own words.

Sarawak Mission.

The ITTO mission to Sarawak (see accompanying ar-
ticle) is an example of this narrow focus at work. In
defending the mission's timber fixation, one of its mem-

bcrs said that of course timber would be the focus of
the mission as it was sponsored by the ITTO*

NGO Involvement

As an observer at the meeting, I expected to be critical
of the ITTO process itself; what I did not expect was
my disillusionment with the role of the environmental or-
ganisations who attended the meeting.

As a group the NGO's failed to come out against the
Sarawak Report despite its obvious inadequacies. Nor
was there any chance of a concerted call for a ban on
the logging of primary forest.

Some of the NGO observers, particularly members of
the large WWF contingent, were intent on trying to
achieve whatever gains they could by influencing the
ITTO process. They were therefore not prepared to
incur the disapproval of ITTO delegates. When NGO's
make compromises in order to reform a large organisa-
tion like the ITTO, they need to look very carefully at
who it is that is being reformed.

Sustainability.

One of the highlights of the Meeting was the presenta-
tion by Aila Keito of the Rainforest Conservation
Society of Queensland of a paper refuting the claim that
sustainable management of tropical forests had been
achieved in North Queensland.(See the article on sus-
tainability in this issue of WRR) Since sustainable
management is the goal of the ITTO and North
Queensland has been put forward as the prime example
of s attainability at work, this is a damning indictment of
the ITTO's credibility.

Conclusion.

Until the ITTO pays due attention to the broader is-
sues instead of merely paying lip service to the chimera
of sustainability, it will continue to bolster the forces of
global impoverishment.

The ITTO Sarawak Report

/'•\

Overview.

Sarawak is by far the largest
source of unprocessed tropical
timber on the world market.
Japan buys about 2/3 of its cur-
rent annual output of 15 mil-
lion cubic metres of timber,

Professor S.CChin of the
University of Malaysia says of
Sarawak: "the forest situation is
now critical. It is necessary to
face the problems of degrada-
tion and destruction squarely
and honestly. At the present
rate of logging the primary

forest will have been cleared and that will be the end of
Sarawaks timber industry/' The native people are the
ones who will suffer most from the impact of logging.
They depend on the forest for wild game, (worth an es-
timated $100 million a year) as well as other products
like fish, nuts, resins, rattan, and bamboo. In 1987,
native people first set up blockades to defend their
lands against the logging, and their struggle has brought
the issue of logging in Sarawak to world attention. In
response to the bad press it was receiving, the
Malaysian government invited FTTO (International
Tropical Timber Organisation) to send a mission to
Sarawak to negotiate 'the promotion of sustainable
forest management in Sarawak.' The nine member
team led by Lord Cranbrook spent a total of 5 days in
Sarawak and handed down a report at the recent meet-
ing of the ITTO.

NGO Response:

Representatives of environmment groups at the ITTO
meeting were critical of the missions report. The two
areas of criticism were the missions failure to deal ade-
quately with the impact of logging on the indigenous
people (the issue which to a large extent prompted the
request for the mission) and the failure to deal ade-
quately with the question of sustainability.

Indigenous people:

The following is extract from the NGO critique of the
mission report, " The report clearly gives low priority to
the needs and rights of indigenous people even though
the official forest policy of Sarawak explicitly does give
priority to the prior claims of local demands over a
profitable export trade. Far from taking advantage of
this fact to make recommendations to secure native
livelihoods - surely a valid interpretation of the mis-
sion's mandate to promote the 'optimum utilisation' of
the forest resources, the mission instead inverted the
priuorkies of Sara 73 wak's forest policy, putting the
production of timber above local needs ...

" The mission gave so little priority to evaluating the
impact of logging on locvaJ economies that it only
visited two native long houses. One of these was a

model village established by the government with negli-
gible logging in the vicinity ..."

Sustainability:

The report says fl the missions overall assessment is
kthat sustainable forestry can be achieved, is being
achieved in some respects, but is failing in others."
Asked if this meant that some areas of forests were
being logged sustainably, Cranbrook said it did not.
One would think that logging is either sustainable or it
is not. It is therefore not clear whether saying it is
being achieved in some respects actually means any-
thing.

The report recommends that production in Sarawak
be reduced from an annual yield of 13 million cubic
metres to 92 million metresin order to achieve sus-
tainability. According to the NGO analysis of the
report's reasoning, this "would only mean that all
primary forest assumed to be available for timber
production be harvested in 13 rather than 11 years".

This makes any suggestions of sustainable yields laugh-
able.

Lord Cranbrook asked that those who criticise the
report should bear in mind that it was intended for a
specific audience. One could conclude that is was only
intended for those who have an ovewhelming need to
be reassured.

The report does almost nothing to help preserve the
forests of Sarawak. It does nothing for the state's in-
digenous people and nothing to alter the call for a
moratorium on the logging that is taking place.

Sources:

"The Promotion of Sustainable Forest Management:
A case Study in Sarawak, MalaysiaJTTC (Vlll)/7th
May 1990,

Various NGO commentaries on the report.

Interview
with Penan
Nomads

Apr 11, 1990

Excerpts from a talk with
four Penan from the Limbang
River region of Sarawak who
were desperate for their plight
to be communicated to the
countries that consume tropical
timber.

In all there are about 750,000
tribal people affected by the logging in Sarawak*
Penan men: Chief Along Sega, Uyan Ngang
Penan women: Libai Uwe (Sinah Langai) Ale Lisu
(Sinali Kem),

Uma Bawang Trial

For the Penan it was their first visit to Kuching, the
State capital of Sarawak, 800 km south from their
homeland in the upper Limbang River, They had come
to Kuching along with 60 other natives from around the
state to lend support to the Kayan people of Uma
Bawang who were seeking to take the government to
court to stop logging on their customary land. This was
one of the first times that a tribal community has at-
tempted to use the courts to stop log gi ng of their lands.
The hearings, which took three days, will establish
whether the people of Uma Bawang have the right to
have their case against the government and the logging
companies heard in court. It is not known when the
Magistrate will hand down his decision.
Along Sega:

...Because of the disturbance of the companies we
went further into the interior to Long Adang and it was
while we were there that graveyards on both sides of the
river were destroyed. This was in 1985 and 1986,

„.When I consider all these problems I just want the
company to leave our area immediately. I believe that
the death of several of my relatives in that area was
caused by bad drinking water.

„At one time the Chief Minister and James Wong had
a meeting with us. This was in one of the timber camps
that belong to Mr James Wong. The Chief Minister left
early so James Wong stayed talking with us and said we
dont have to worry about our land being destroyed be-
cause whatever we want, maybe money, he can try to

give it to us. I said "I am not going to get any money
from you. Both your eyes may fall down, may come out
of their sockets to see how much money you have but I
am not going to have any of that."

I also told him "You are the one who gives licences
out to people to destroy our land. If you don't remove
your workers from our area we are going to kill them."

„, I said again that he must stay and then James Wong
took a bar of soap, gave it to me and said "Use this to
wash your head to remove all the lice from your hair."
So he left. It was the only thing he gave to me.
(Laughter), Since then he has never met with me and
we only meet with the workers and the managers of his
timber company. But when we meet with the managers
they say, "We have no final authority, the authority is
with James Wong in Kuching,"

(At the time James Wong's company, Limbang Trading
was in partnership with the Japanese company C Itoh
which was doing the logging. Limbang Trading is the licen-
ceefor the area of Along Sega's lands and other areas of
forest totalling several hundred thousand hectares. Datuk
Wong is the state Minister for Environment and Tourism.
He is reporterd to have commented to western journalists
that if logging reduces the rainfall in Sarawak this is a
good thing as all the rain stops him from playing golf )

We were not afraid of going to jail because we know
that either way we are going to die. Even if we go to jail
we will die.

Jl think that the evil spirit is blocking the hearing of
the timber company to listen to our grievances.

Even though I have not lived for so long, and I am not
old enough to say that we have been living in that area
for so long, I believe that my great great grand fathers
have been in that area and it is only the company that
say that we do not have any rights to our land.,.

AC: What do you think it will be like in ten years from
now?

AS: We will die. Give us only a year...
PA: I have heard that the women were very involved
in the blockades.

Ale Lisu: We regard the family as one unit and
whatever the men do the women always help them.
During the blockade the women have to work alone to
gather leaves for our huts and wood for our fires and
sago and take care of our children.
PA: What hardships are created for women by the log-

6 &ng?

AL: „.Most of the jungle products have been depleted.
There are many species of rattan that we use for our
daily life and also the jungle harvest that is now not
enough to feed our family, our children. Before the
companies entered our area, when the jungle was not
destroyed, we women could go and make sago oursel-
ves, we can go and get palm heart, and we could also
bring the dog,- to hunt. But now we can't do all these
things because they are very far, they have been
finished, only men can do them for us.

PA: At the blockades women were prepared to be ar-
rested but in the early blockades they were not I have
heard thai in the most recent blockades women were ar-
rested Is this true?

AL: Yes during the recent blockade they pulled by our
hands into the cars and they said that they were going
to arrest us. But when we reached the police station, be-
cause they are ashamed and shy they said, "We are not
going to arrest the women."

AC: It is a great honour for us to be with such brave
and strong women.

PA: Is there a message they would like to share with the
people in the west who are concerned for the welfare of
the Penan?

Libai Uwe: The only thing that I would like to say is
that we would like them to teU the timber companies, to
tell our government to ask the timber companies to go
away from our area because we have so many problems.

...If the people in the far away countries would like to
see us living, then they should not buy timber from our
country.

If they continue to extract logs and timber from our
area, our lives will wither like the leaves of the trees,
like fish without water. Our life depends on all the
products in the jungle like rattan, animals, fish and
many other things.

...Even though how angry we are, we say these harsh
words, we are like animals that have no teeth, we are
like an animal that has no claws.

Bruno Manser Leaves
Sarawak

Bruno Manser, long time defender of the Penan
people in Malaysia, has returned to Switzerland.

Regarded as a subversive element by Malaysian
authorities, he has given a press conference for the
Society for Threatened Peoples in Zurich, He has ap-
pealed for a continued push for a ban on tropical tim-
bers from Malaysia, and a dialogue with the Malaysian
government. He intends to continue supporting the
cause of the Penan in Europe.

in an interview he described the Penan as the "profes-
sors of the jungle" and said that the authorities in
Sarawak should not feel ashamed to have the Penan
living in their country. Even the Sarawak govern-
ment, he said^ure our sisters and brothers.

To renounce the use of tropical wood alone is not
enough" declared Manser, M I want above alt to ap-
peal to leading politicians ...to call on the chief mini-
ster of the Sarawak government to consciously look
at the situation."

"The general public as well as international organisa-
tions should in mutual agreement plan actions in order
to obtain a maximum effect with a minimum expendi-
ture."

"For financial help we $pen a donation account in my
name. I must and will be answerable for the use of this
money. (Bruno Manser Fond GZB 4002 Basel
Acc.421 J 32930.00.00~8 Pc-Kto 40-8888-1)

Note: Bruno is currently on a tour which has taken
him to speaking engagements in Japan and Australia.
He will also be travelling to the USA and Canada.

"Borneo Post" Claims Claims
ITTO Mission Approval for
Sarawak Logging*

The International Tropical Timber Organisation
(ITTO) mission to Sarwak "gave top marks for
Sarawak's forest management system" according to an
article in the Borneo Post (1-4-90)

The article appeared on April 1st.

The report on the mission's findings, though it dodged
the real issues and shied away from unreserved criticism
of Sarawak forestry practices, could hardly be said to
give "top marks" to forest management in Sarawak.

7

UNDER THE TROPICAL FORESTRY AC-
TION PLAN LOGGING IN PRIMARY
FORESTS WILL INTENSIFY....

Tropical Forestry

Action Plan

- Five Years On

by Carol Sherman

The Tropical Forestry Action Plan (TFAP), was
launched in 1985 by the World Resource Insiuute,The
United Nations Development Project (UNDP), The
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the
World Bank, ostensibly to fund the protection of the
Earth's tropical forests.

The TFAP intends to spend some US$8 billion in
forestry. Some 73 tropical forest countries accounting
for over 85% of all tropical forests have expressed an in-
terest in participating in the TFAP process.

Since its inception the TFAP has been widely
criticized by nun- government organizations (NGOs),
for its primary focus on funding commercial forestry
and wood based industries, paying little attention to
the needs of local peoples and forest dwellers and fail-
ing to identify the real causes of deforestation. Conser-
vation plans are inadequately addressed whilst many
country plans advocate the opening up of large areas of
primary forest to industrial timber operations.

Although some of the criticisms raised by NGOs of
the TFAP have resulted in few changes, the general pic-
ture is bleak for the safety of tropical forests and local
peoples, Jim Douglas, from the World Bank (Bulletin,
29,8.89), says of the TFAP, "...We're looking to clean up
our act in a major way. It is a perfect opportunity to
come up with new ideas and policies the like of which
we should see a lot more of from the Bank in the fu-
ture". But unfortunately, the TFAP has failed to come
up with innovative ideas for conservation and at-
tainability. Instead it is dominated by concerns of profit
making and conventional forestry.

INCREASES IN LOGGING
UNDER THE TFAP.

In a recent analysis of the TFAP, "What Progress?"
Marcus Colchester, from the World Rainforest Move-
ment, and Larry Lohmann, found that the plan is
facilitating substantially increased financing of unsus-
tainable forestry projects whilst not addressing the root
causes of deforestation.

It incorporates massive increases in logging in many of
the National Forestry Action Plans despite the fact that
there is no convincing evidence that commercial logging
can be made both sustainable and economically viable.
Logging will be substantially increased in presently unex-

ploited primary forest in step with policies of industrial
expansion. Many of the national plans ignore politically
delicate issues such as the causes of landlessness - the
main factor causing the rural poor to colonize the rain-
forests, and fail to challenge the national and interna-
tional projects and policies that are leading to deforesta-
tion. The issue of equitable redistribution of land and
rights to forests has not been properly addressed at any
stage of the TFAP process, even though these issues are
central to sustainable development.

' C^N STiL.

Exploitation Of Third World
Resources.

The Forest Management for Industrial Uses section in
the TFAP, clearly shows how the multilateral agencies
perceive tropical rainforests purely as an economic
resource. In Brazil it is proposed that 5 million ha of
Amazon Forest be brought under control and manage-
ment, whilst in Ecuador about 1 million ha of natural
forest in the Esmeraldas region is to be brought under
management. India is to bring an additional 30 million
hectares of natural forest under management whilst in
the Congo it is the same story. Meanwhile, focus on con-
servation has been incredibly low.

In PNG, Brian Brunton in his scathing critique of the
World Bank's TFAP Review for that country, states that
the Review has failed to identify and specify the forces
that pose a threat to the FNG rainforest, He looks on
the capital based industries of the First World as one of
the unexamined threats and sees that the TFAP for
PNG has all markings of supplying the developed
countries with cheap raw materials. He says " the TFAP
Report treats tropical rainforests as a resource on
which to base an export industry". Whilst PNG is held
up as a successful case study by the Bank with com-
ponents of World Heritage Listing and conservation in-
itiatives, very little discussion has been held on these is-

8

sues with vital matters such as the role of land owners
in conservation areas not having been considered.

In Ghana, the National Forestry Action Plan focuses
heavily on the promotion of logging. It is primarily con-
cerned with developing the nation's timber industry,
which is likely to result in continued over- logging and
destruction of Ghana's remaining natural forests.
Nowhere has the focus been to identify or check the
main causes of deforestation, with no acknowledgement
being made to the fact that deforestation may be con-
nected to social inequities, land rights issues or export-
orientated economic policies.

It is clear that the TFAP is primarily concerned with
the efficiency of the timber industry in tropical
countries and geared exclusively towards dealing with
central governments. It has indeed shown itself after 5
years to have very little to do with its basic premise of
protection of our forests,

NGO INVOLVEMENT.

One concession that the Bank has been proudly draw-
ing attention to in recent times is its willingness to hase
with non-government organizations. President of the
World Bank, Mr Con able has encouraged Bank staff to
"initiate a broadened dialogue with NGOs" and stated
that he fully expected collaboration to flourish. Several
reviews of Bank-assisted projects have confirmed the im-
portance of beneficiary organizations to the success and
sustainability of many development activities. Yet the
TFAP has been devised with almost no consultation
with NGOs nor with community based organizations. Al-
though involvement with NGOs has varied from country
to country, where there has been some involvement by
NGOs, it has usually been confined to the Final phases
of pl annin g

In PNG the TFAP has not been made available to the
public even though the issues discussed are of vital con-
cern to all Papua New Guineans. B. Brunton notes in
his critique that although the reason for such secrecy
is to some extent due to bureaucratic habits within
PNG, the secrecy of the World Bank legitimizes these
actions.

Meanwhile out of 10 African countries preparing na-
tional plans, only Burkina Faso and Zaire involved na-
tional NGOs in the TFAP process, whilst in South
America there has only been limited or late participa-
tion by NGOs in Ecuador, Honduras, Columbia, and
Peru. Venezuela and Argentina had no NGOs involved
at any stage.

WIDESPREAD FAILURES
LEAD TO CALL FOR
MORATORIUM.

The TFAP fails to meet its goals of checking deforesta-
tion and fails to promote multi-disciplinary and cross-
sectoral planning, designed to encourage a democratic
development process in which local people have a
decisive voice in the formulation of policy about
resource use in their areas. It fails to allow freedom of

9

information, although this is an essential prerequisite to
ensure success of any project that involves the com-
munity. In all, the TFAP seems likely to accelerate
rather than curb deforestation.

It is for these reasons that the World Rainforest Move-
ment is calling for a moratorium of international fund-
ing for the Tropical Forestry Action Plan, They are call-
ing on donors to cease channelling their aid monies
through the TFAP until it is completely restructured.
They call for logging operations to be massively scaled
down, while demanding that funding or technical
facilities not be made available to promote commercial
logging in primary forests.

What You Can Do:

Write now to the World Bank and our own respective

governors and governments to ensure that the TFAP

addresses the vital issues of forest conservation and

local community sustainability rather than export

orientated, commercial logging operations in the name

of sustainable development, Mr. R Carling

Australian Alternate
MrConable _ , "

Prcsident, World Bwk _ %^T^!T

1818 H St NW, iSTffiSP

Wawshingon DC 20433 washing™ ™*

Mr Paul Keating Australian Governor to the

World Bank Parliament House Canberra, ACT 2600.

Acknowledgements:

Marcus Colchester, Larry Lohmann "The Tropical
Forestry Action Plan: What Progress? 11 (Published by
the World Rainforest Movement and the Ecologist See
below.) Brian D Brunton. "Critique of the

World Bank's Tropical Forestry Action Plan Review for
Papua New Guinea."

George Marshall " The World Bank Tropical Forestry
Action Plan for Papua New Guinea: A Critique." (Rain-
forest Information Centre)

For further information contact: Marcus Colchester,
World Rainforest Movement, England Teh 060 876 691
Fax; 060 876 743 Email: GE02:WRM

Larry Lohmann, The Ecologist, England Tel: 0258
73476 Fax: 0258 73748 Email:jm:ecologist

SUSTAINABILITY

The term sustainability is now used in almost every-
thing written or spoken about the management of tropi-
cal forests. The International Tropical Timber Organisa-
tion, for example, has adopted guidelines which call for
all tropical timber timber traded on the international
market to be from "sustainable sources". Confusion ex-
ists about what this means*

The Meaning of
Sustainability

The word "sustainable" is often used without explana-
tion. The following may clarify its use with respect to
rainforest:

"...The phrase, as made popular by the Brundtland
Commission, refers to the means by which develop-
ment is made to meet the needs of of the present
without compromising the ability of future genera-
tions to meet thier own needs*

"Since the needs of future generations are un-
definable and the future potential for wealth generation
of species and ecosystems are equally unknowable, the
term apparently implies that total biological assets are
not reduced, in the long term, through use.

"In terms of tropical forests, sustainable use includes
not just maintaining timber resources and conserving
biological diversi ty, but also maintaining the ecologi-
cal functions of forests such as soil quality, hydrologi-
cal cycles, climate and weather, downstream fisheries,
as well as maintaining supplies of other forest
products - game, fruits, nuts, resins, dyes, basts, con
structional materials, fuelwood, etc - essential to the
hveli hoods of local people. Logging, which inevitably
simplifies forest ecosystems, can never be sustainable in
such terms.

"A much more limited notion, that of 'sustained yield
management* is often confused with the wider con-
cept of sustainability. 'Sustained yield management'
refers only to logging prescriptions which do not
remove more volume of timber than a forest is capa
ble of regenerating on a continuing basis."

(from "The TFAP: What Process?" By Marcus Col-
chester and Larry Lohmann, published by the World
Rainforest Movement and the Ecologist Magazine*)

The Duncan Poore Study

The ITTO sponsored a study, headed by Duncan
Poore, into the world's sustainable management of tropi-
cal forests, (see Len Webb's article in WRR13). It con-
cluded that the area being managed sustainably was "on
a world scale, negligible."

This was hardly welcome news for an organisation
promoting world trade in tropical timber, and as Mar-
cus Colchester points out, the study "reveals itself to be
part of a campaign with a different objective" than that
of unbiased investigation. Poore himself says in nhis
final chapter that his aim is to "generate a sense of ur-
gent but qualified optimism 1 about the tropical timber
industry. This is as dangerous move, says Colchester: "If

Poore is wrong, and sustainable logging is an illusion,
then encouraging log ging rather than calling for its halt
is bound to hasten the forests 1 demise."

Poore notes in the first chapter of the study that tech-
nical constraints, although they certainly exist, are much
less important than those that are political, economic
and social*" In spit re of this, the study makes no attempt
to offer suggestions on how to deal with these non-tech-
nical constraints, One can only assume that hi saying
sustainable management is possible, Poore assumes that
these other problems have been solved and he is talking
only about the technical ones.

It is to Australia that the proponents of sustainable log-
ging have turned for their prime example of sustainable
logging of tropical forests. Because Australia is not sub-
ject to the social, economic and political constraints that
make control of Third World forests so difficult, it is a
good case to examine to see if the purely technical con-
straints can be overcome.

The Demise of the
Queensland Model

Poore's study supported the Queensland Forest Ser-
vice's own claims that their management of North
Queensland's forests was an example of sustained yield
timber harvesting. This claim has been conclusively
refuted in a paper presented at the recent WTO meet-
ing in Bah" by Aila Keito of the Rainforest Conservation
Society of Queensland, Duncan Poore was at the presen-
tation and acknowleged that "there are problems with
the Queensland model."

An examination of the paper suggests that this is a
gross understatement.

It is beyond the scope of this article to deal with the
paper in detail, but copies are available on request from
the Rainforest Information Centre,

Conclusion

So it remains to be established whether the "much less
important" technical problems to sustained yield timber
harvesting can be overcome in tropical forest. Even if it
was possible, the daunting task of dealing with the so-
cial, political and economic factors would remain. The
only sensible choice is therefore to declare a
moratorium on the logging of primary tropical forest.

Sources: Poore, Duncan: No Timber Without Trees.
Earthscan Publications, London,(252pp)

Colchester, Marcus: Can Tropical Forests Be Swstainab-
fy Managed? Third World Network Features 87 Canton-
ment Rd, Penang, Malaysia.

Keito,A; Scott.K; Oken,M: Sustainabnle Harvesting of
Tropical Forest: A Reassessment.

15

A POLICY FOR TRADING IN SUSTAINABLY
PRODUCED TROPICAL TIMBER

description of its production methods will be availat ,

We have had a number of enquiries about the Ecologi- at the point of sale.

cal Trading Company*. For those interested, this is our Existing companies say very little about the origins and

company manifesto. As the discussion about sustainable methods of production of their timbers. The timber is

timber operations seems to be hotting up this may now be not 73 labelled, its sources cannot be identified, and in-

of general interest Comments/criticisms welcome {They formation about the circumstances under which it '

are also welcomed by WRR -Editor) produced is therefore not available.

- Chris Cox, Hubert Kwisthout.

In the United Kingdom there are many hundreds of
timber importing companies. Why should we want to es-
tablish yet another, particularly one that will import tropi-
cal timber?

The timber trade has in recent years come under
much criticism because of its alleged contribution to the
destruction of tropical rainforests.

We believe that although the trade has been - and still
is - part of the problem, it also has the potential to be-
come part of the solution. By establishing and making
a success of the ECOLOGICAL TRADING COMPANY
or EXC, we want to demonstrate this.

How Will We Achieve This?

The Ecological Trading Company will differ from exist-
ing timber importers in a number of ways:

I* The EXC, will only import timber from sus-
tainable sources.

Existing companies buy from wherever they can. The
price, quality and appearance of the timber are usually
the only criteria. As companies are interested in the
results rather than the methods of production, the ques-
tion of whether or not the timber comes from a sus-
tainable source is not on the agenda.

2, The EXC, will guarantee the sustainabiliry of the
timber it sells. The timber wiU be labelled and a fuU

3. The EXC, intends to trade directly with producers
and maintain a close relationship with them. Existing
importers generally have only tenuous links with their
sourcesj as most buying is done through agents. Because
of the involvement of so many different people on
various levels, companies have limited information on
and virtually no control over what is going on at the ac-
tual production site.

4. The EXC. will endeavour to give producers sub-
stantially higher prices than usual for their timber on
the condition that they operate a sustainable manage-
ment plan.

At present producers tend to get very low prices for
their timber. It is usually sold and re-sold several times
before it finally reaches the consumers. The low pur-
chase price means not only that the producers cannot af-
ford sustainable management - there is also no incentive
for them to do so,

5. The EXC, will actively promote the so-called secon-
dary species. This wiU not only help to relieve the pres-
sure on commonly used species, but will also ensure a
more balanced use of forest resources.

Existing companies have tended to promote and sell
only those species which they have always promoted
and sold. This led to uneven exploitation of the forests
and caused immense waste as unknown timbers were ig-
nored. The use of only a few dozen out of a potential of
many thousands of species stems mainly from habit and
a reluctance to try anything new.

6. The EXC, will be able to take advantage of the
growing green consumer movement, which demands
that industry take environmental and social factors
into account. This is because we will give fuU considera-
tion to these matters in designing our trading practices.

Existing companies lend to see the green consumer
movement as a threat to their interests. They are unable
to respond adequately to the demands from environmen-
talists due to their dependence on established trading
practices.

Is Sustainable Tropical
Forestry Even Possible?

Yes. There are many to intensive and complex planta-
tion schemes. What they have in common is that they
take a long-term perspective and meet these essential re-
quirements: secure land tenure, commitment, planning
and management.

Although sustainable production depends first and
foremost on the 73 efforts of the producers, they are
only the first link in a chain of interdependence which
extends all the way to the consumers.

In the effort to develop sustainable production it is not
enough to concentrate solely on the production side.
Sustainabihty can only be achieved if it is supported by
all the links in the chain.

At present such support is lacking. Until now the tim-
ber trade has been operating in a way that still bears the
hallmarks of the colonial tradition in which it was estab-
lished - based on low commodity prices, cheap labour,
and with little regard for the social and natural environ-
ment of the communities that it affected.

The timber trade operates in a market system that is
characterized by a fundamental inequality between the
trading partners. The E.T.C will develop trading links
between producers and consumers based upon prin-
ciples that are environmentally sound and socially just.

How Do We Intend To Work?

The EXC. will assist forestry projects that produce
tropical timbers on a sustainable basis within the
framework of a long-term management plan. It will do
so by:

1. Buying timber from existing projects at prices
which enable the implementation of such plans to con-
tinue.

2. Providing an incentive for the creation of new sus-
tainable forestry projects by offering a reliable market
for their timber. This will provide a realistic alternative
to current, environmentally unsound land use practices.

The EXC can purchase timbers from any source that
fulfils our criteria. We are, however, particularly inter-
ested in forestry projects that are part of wider develop-
ment schemes aimed at a general improvement in living
standards. We seek to co-operate with development
agencies that are involved in such schemes.

Producers often have to operate under difficult cir-
cumstances. The establishment of forestry projects and
the creation of the conditions for export-oriented local
enterprises are complex matters. The usual demands of
the export market add to this complexity. The EXC
feels that these demands must not force producers to
compromise their commitment to sustainabihty. There-
fore we will adapt our trade agreements to the ability of
the producers to supply, rather than impose our
demands on them* This flexibility will amongst other
things refer to the quantities of timber involved and the
frequency of supply.

We believe that sustainable forestry can only succeed
when it is based on sufficient participation from local
populations. However, any lasting success cannot be
achieved unless it also has the support of national and
regional authorities. It is governments that must provide
the overall framework - legal and otherwise - which will

73 guarantee that long-term development can take
place. The EXC will seek to co-operate with any such
authority.

How Can We Ensure That
Our Timber Is Sustainably
Produced?

Hie sustainabihty of our timber sources is the prime
distinction between the E.T.C. and other timber com-
panies. It is essential to be able to verify this

This will be done in the following ways:

L An initial assessment of the management plans, A
convincing plan is a precondition of EXC involvement.
Before entering into a trade agreement with any
project, we will consult a number of independent ad-
visers.

2, Monitoring of the implementation of management
plans. This will be achieved by regular visits to the
production site by EXC representatives, supplemented
by information from third parties.

The E.T.C. will reserve the right to suspend or
withdraw from transactions with producers should their
production methods contravene agreements.

THE ECOLOGICAL TRAD-
ING COMPANY

1 Lesbury Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5LB,
United Kingdom. Tel : 091 276 5547 Fax: 091 265 4

12

Australia

TIMBER SHIP
BLOCKADES AND
OTHER ACTIONS

Blockades- of ships carrying rainforest timber into
Australia have continued. Melbourne Rainforest Action
Group has so far blockaded eleven ships. (See WRR 15
for details of previous actions) This tactic has been
most effective in gaining widespread publicity and sup-
port for opposing rainforest timber imports, as well as
increasing the price of the imported timber. Per-
haps activists in other countries could adopt similar

Recent Actions:

The Mitsubishi company sponsored an open air con-
cert attended by 30,000 people to open this year's
Adelaide Arts Festival. The highlight of the evening
was a spectacular fireworks display over the Derwent
River, and all the eyes and cameras watching were
rewarded with the sight of Adelaide RAG's eight metre
water borne banner declaring, "Mitsubishi Destroys
Rainforest", The publicity hungry company received the
boos and jeers it deserves.

Brisbane RAG greeted a tropical timber ship at
Brett's Wharves in Brisbane early in February, The
captain was friendly and co- operative and let the
RAG group place a banner and rainbow flag on board.

On the 19th of February 25 activists in kayaks block-
aded the timber ship "Mayfair" for three hours in Darl-
ing Harbour, Sydney. The action was organised by Syd-
ney RAG with special guest appear ances from Mel-
bourne RAG and Brisbane RAG members. The action
began before sunrise and culminated in 7 paddle rs
being trapped between the ship and the wharf
Despite a police warning that they would be arrested

unless they moved, two of the protesters stayed where
they were until police divers were called in. Al though
several activists were detained by police, there were no
arrests. The blockade received TV coverage all over
Australia, and in London.

The unfortunate "Mayfair" was again met by
protesters when it entered the Yarra River to make
its way into Melbourne four days later. Once again
there were no arrests, but it was a different story when
members of MRAG scaled a fence at Victoria Docks,
intending to write the words, "Don't buy this timber"
with wood unloaded from the "Mayfair 1 ". There were
16 arrests.

On the 9th of April, the "Fittonia" was blockaded in
Melbourne. There were 100 protesters, 55 of them in
the water. An inflatable "earth", five metres in diameter
was placed in front of the ship, symbolising "the lumber-
ing juggernaut of capitalist civilisation on a collision
course with planet Earth," The Earth survived the col-
lision and was carried in a procession to Tirnbersales,
Mel bourne's largest timber merchant, where a
minute's silence was observed to mourn the destruc-
tion of the rainforests.

The campaign in Victoria has resulted in the Build-
ing Workers' Industrial Union banning the use of im-
ported 373 rainforest timbers on all construction sites
in Victoria, the decision by the three largest plywood
manufacturers in the state not to use rainforest tim-
bers in the manufacture of plywood* and increasing
evidence of consumer boycotts of rainforest timbers.

Adelaide Botanic Garden an
Mitsubishi:

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens has built a tropical
rainforest conservatory as a Bicentennial Project. This
Bicentennial Conservatory carries sponsorship from
over a dozen companies, including Mitsubishi.

Members of Adelaide RAG were incensed that the
Botanic Gardens Board had taken sponsorship from a
company such as Mitsubishi. Approache t th boar di no
receiv satisfactor response and a "protest picnic wa
held in the parklands near the Conservatory, A three-
panel, free-standing display, outlined Japan's role in
Rainforest destruction, Mitsubishi's involvement, and
the connectio wit th Conservatory Th issu wa furthe
publicise wit stree theatr an petitio an receive wid T
coverag a di subsequen protes involvin occupatio o th
Conservatory.

Extract fro th loca newspape repor o th issue:

"...However, the 60-member State branch of Rainforest
Action, a nationa conservation group, said yesterday it
would not rule out pickets an protests outside the con-
servatory as a result of the decision.

Australia tccnt'd)

The group had asked the board to remove the Mit-
subishi logo from information pamphlets on the conser-
vatory and from a brass plaque outside the building.

The request was in a letter to the board, which says
Mitsubishi Corporation Japan, has operated a sub-
sidiary logging company, Daiya Malaysia, i Malaysia for
the past 15 years and that it has a 90,000 ha loggin con*
cession in Sarawak. RAG spokesperson Mr Ian
Grayson said the board's decision was "environment a
dynamite". The Unking of the international Mitsubishi
logo with rainfores conservation when it's actually clear-
ing them is subverting the truth, he said.

Mitsubishi Motors Australia spokesman Mr Charles
lies said the company ha "no involvment with rainforest
timbers" Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan, had established
a global environmental committee to deal with environ-
mental issues.

COURT
CHALLENGE
OVER FOREST
INDUSTRIES ADS

Conservationists have begun a Federal court chal-
lenge to the Forest Industries Austalia-wide media cam*
paign.

Hie campaign, launched on March 4th, involves a TV
commercial, radio and newspaper advertisements and
an 'information kit 9 - These present the Forest In-
dustries case justifying current logging practices in na-
tive forests throughout Australia.

The challenge has been mounted by the South West
Forests Defence Foundation Inc, a conservation ad-
vocacy group based in West Australia, which is seeking
an injunction under the Trade Practices Act to stop fur-
ther publication of statements which it claims are false,
misleading or deceptive - or are likely to mislead or
deceive.

The defendants are B minings Forest Products Pty Ltd,
a member of the Western Australian Forest products
Association - and the Forest Products Industry Associa-
tion (F.LCA.), a company registered in Victoria which
conducts the Forest Industries public relations activities.

The statements challenged are:

* less than 30% of Australia's public native forests are
available for wood production.

* of this area, only 1% is logged in any one year,

* there is no logging in national parks.

Beth Schultz, President of the South West Forests
Defence Foundation Inc, said today: "On their own
figures, 78% of Australia's public native forests are
available for logging. In WA, the area logged in 1988
was five times what the advertisement would have us
believe. Moreover, there have been several recent cases
of logging in National Parks in different parts of
Australia, For instance, I myself have seen logging in
Warren National Park in the south west of W,A, tt

Spokesperson for the Conservation Council of the
South East Region & Canberra, Sid Walker, said today:
"The case which our friends in W, A. have lodged today
has not been easy to assemble. Conservationists dispute
many of the claims made by the Forest Industries in
their latest advertising blitz, but most have been skillful-
ly worded and may be technically defensible even
though, in our view, they are misleading.

"However, we are confident that the Forest Industries
have overstepped the mark in at least three cases.
These are reasonably straightforward matters of fact*
We would like to take action against some of the other
preposterous claims made in the ads, such as "govern-
ments and the Forest Industries have learned to operate
a harvesting cycle that copies what happens in nature'.
These may form the basis for a formal complaint to the
Advertising Standards Council at a later date, if such ac-
tion proves 33 necessary,"

Mr Walker continued: The public should be also be
aware that this is a contest between David and Goliath,
Waging this court action will stretch to the limit the
resources of this brave group of conservationists in
W.A. Sympathetic members of the public are en-
couraged to donate to the South West .Forests Defence
Foundation Inc which is fighting on behalf of all
Australians for our common native forest heritage."

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

SID WALKER (CC.S.E.R.C) .06 - 257 6646 or

247 7808 (w); 06 - 248 9243 (h)

BETH SCHULTZ {&W,ED.F.).„. 09 - 328 3155 (w);
09 - 386 7159(h)

Australia (cont'd)

CHAELUNDI:
Non Violent Action?

Chaelundi is a 30,000 hectare state forest 70 kl
South west of Grafton on the N.S.W. North coast. The
NXW, Forestry Commission had just started Logging
at the edge of an 8,000 hectare section that had never
seen a chainsaw and was planning to carve an 8 km
logging road through its heart

Recent studies have shown this forest to contain the
highest population and most varied array of arborial
mammals in S.E. Australia. The Environmental Plan-
ning and Assesments act rcqires by law that the F,C
do an Environmental Impact Study (EJS.) before any
significant damage is done to sensitive forests. The
F.C. yet again neglected to fulfill this requirement and
was therefore operating illegally.

The North East Forest Alliance (N.E.F.A.) with
the election looming decided on a blockade of
Chaelundi Stale forest. N.E.F.A. had not adopted all
the principles of N.V.A., such as openness and non
secrecy. After much discussion on the pros and cons it
was decided to be open and a press release was
circulated identifying the time, place and reasons
for our actions. This gave us some important first
favorable reporting of the issue.

Rain stopped logging on the first day which allowed
for much valuable dialogue with the F.C. and the con-
tractors. The F.C. then decided to close the forests to
everyone including the Media and wait it out till Mon-
day. The blockade continued. We told the Police and
F.C, we were committed to a N,V, blockade of the ac-
cess road while we waited for an injunction to be
heard in Sydney in the next couple of days,

Mondays action went smoothly and as planned. Ten
people calling themselves the Earth Police tried to
make a citizens arrest on the head forester, chaining
that the operation was illegal. Police dragged cars off
the road and peacefully arrested 9 people for sitting
and singing on a blockade of logs. Two others were ar-
rested after chaining themselves to cars.

Positive peaceful images and stories were sent to
all local media and Sydney TV stations. The message
of illegal logging in Chaelundi soon became com-
mon knowledge.
The next day didn't go quite so smoothly.
There seemed to be a distinct Jack of enthusiasm in
the air to organise a circle and plan an ap-
propriate action for the day. What followed was a
spontaneous and secretive direct action with the ex-
pected result. While I was organising my camera a log-
ging truck approached. Someone yelled out lets
blockade it. Spontaneously people wondered on to the
road and stopped the truck, A couple of brave wim-
min crawled under the stationary truck and chained

Em Guru checks suspension of Green Mobile during
Chaelundi Forest Action*

their necks to the front axle. About 10 contractors
came bolting towards the truck thinking that the
protesters may have been about to damage the truck.
People were very nearly bashed and necks streched as
tempers flared. There were no police present yet lucki-
ly for us we had a few cameras which probably stopped
blood flowing that day. After that dust had settled
some others attempted another spontaneous blockade
of some macho contractors. Six people were nearly run
over as the contractor ploughed through. The message
that went out on the news that night was, violence in
the forests and just showed an angry confrontation
between two divided groups of people.

Rather than have the earth irreparably damaged in ten
years I would like to see a society which found it totally
unacceptable for any consumer item or industry to be
in any way involved in damaging our environment. To
achieve this goal we must convince people that the
earth is threatened and inspire them to get involved.
N,V.A. is a complete strategy to help bring about this
green revolution.

John Lennon says there are no problems only solu-
tions. N.V.A. says that there are no enemies only future
converts, ^S^jjt^ - Dean

Jefferys iBf 'W^^s?w)fi

PI J^^am

India

WORLD BANK PRESSES AHEAD WITH
THE INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED
DISASTROUS SADAR
SAROVAR PROJECT

By Carol Sherman

lW World Bank recognizes that it has backed a
project that is causing widespread controversy on both
economic, social and environmental fronts, yet It
refuses to cancel aU undisbursed loans.

Is it enough for lobbyists and activists to accept that
the dam WI^L be built because construction has been
continuing over a number of years? Is it enough just to
ensure that resettlement and rehabilitation will
proceed in a humane manner, if it proceeds at all?
And is it enough for us to press for environmental
studies to be completed, and compensation plans imple-
mented? Can we guarantee that the World Bank will
not embark on any further major dam schemes?

Some activists have written this project off as a lost
cause, and believe they can only press for better condi-
tions. But many of the 100,000 people to be affected
and their supporters are daily increasing pressure to
stop the construction of the dam. Discussed here are
some potent reasons why the World Bank should can-
cel the remainder of its loans to this so-called develop-
ment.

The Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Gujarat, western
India, is a combined power and water development
project which is expected to provide electricity and
water to the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh (MP),
Maharashtra and Rajasthan for a cost of US$11.4 bil-
lion. It is also expected to displace 90,000 people and in-
undate up to 13,000 hectares of forest. Although the
government of Gujarat touts this project as the "lifeline
of Gujarat" which will end water shortages permanently
and claims that 75 of the command area is drought-
prone, independent studies have shown that at least
66% of the drought prone areas in the state will receive
no water from SSP, that 66% of the command area is
neither drought prone nor arid and that the main
beneficiaries of the project are going to be people in the
rich central districts of Gujarat, where a large propor-
tion of Gujarat's water resources are already con-
centrated.

Water scarcity is a serious problem for large sections
of the population of Gujarat, However, this project will
not be the answer and willleave little funding for any

1 6

other development projects. Alternatives were not ade-
quately reviewed by the World Bank or Indian state
governments* Yet statistics prove that canal irrigation
projects have a very poor record in India. By 1986, out
of 246 large scale irrigation projects started since 1951,
181 were still incomplete.

Even though the Bank has repeatedly declared its
heightened concern over both social and environmental
aspects of development projects, credibility has been
lost by the continued funding for the project

Having recently returned from a visit to India, includ-
ing the Badwani region in Madhya Pradesh (MP), it is
clear that opposition to the project is further increasing
at all levels of society. Rallies of thousands and daily sit-
ins are a continuous occurrence. In the tribal areas
there have been major protests while musclemen as-
sociated with the dam contractors have been attacking
villages located close to the actual dam site causing
greater chaos* It is obvious that little headway has been
made in areas of resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R)
in all three states, or on matters of environmental plan-
ning or dialogue with local peoples.

After four years of project approval, while the dam
continues to be built, crucial studies and action plans
are incomplete; some have not even been started. The
Bank seems to have put negligible emphasis on comple-
tion of studies relating to environmental issues.

Lastly, for over a year now, some Bank staff have ad-
mitted that the original cost/benefit analysis may be ob-
solete and have talked about a review of the cost benefit
analysis. Issues questioned include costs such as
measures to mitigate public health impacts, the full
costs of R&R, the environmental and economic cost of

India (amt dy

forest submergence, and the value of prime agricultural
land in the submergence area of MP. Indian NGOs
have repeatedly claimed that projected crop yields for
the irrigated area are exaggerated. It must be asked why
the Bank is disbursing money to a project whose
economic viability is now even questioned by various
Bank staff.

Instead of pouring money into the SSP, the Bank
should fund a review of all incomplete projects, and
facilitate the completion of unfinished projects which
are environmentally and socially sound. Loans from the
Bank should be directed towards research into small
scale, community based alternative irrigation projects,
and develop energy conservation strategies.

We must make sure that pressure remains on the Bank
to withdraw funding for this project. On a scale that en-
tails so much personal and ecological destruction, it is
not enough to concede defeat on this particular issue
yet claim that the Bank will not dare fund something of
this calibre again. A campaign of non cooperation and
non-violent action continues to be waged inside India.
Let us make sure we stand in solidarity by calling for an
immediate cancellation of undisbursed loans for the Sar-
dar Sarovar Project.

Further information available from: Ms Carol Sherman.
PO BOX 161 Byron Bay. NSW24SL

Help needed for
Botanical Sanctuary
in Southern India.

Carol Sherman.

We finally got down from the rickety crowded bus a
few kilometres outside a tiny village called Periyar, in
Kerala, southern India. After hours of travelling
through the mist enshrouded mountains, once majestic,
now covered by tea bushes, we felt the intrusion of man
all around. In a landscape that still enraptures the soul,
we could only sigh for the lost species that were
chopped away for our eternal hot drinks.

The purpose of our journey was to find Wolfgang, a
German Swami, who had created a botanical sanctuary
over the past twenty years. A recent letter from him had
informed me of his large collection of orchids, and of
the varied plant species that he is nurturing and saving
from the plundered nearby forests. High in the moun-
tains, surrounded by wildlife reserves and jungle,
Wolfgang was witnessing daily the increase of
encroachers. Large tracts of pristine forest had been cut
open for eucalypt plantations close by. The massive scar
in the forest echoed the situation all over India, where
eucalypt s native to Australia, have devastated huge
areas overseas. India is still ripping out its own natural
forests for industrial based commercial logging.

When we arrived at the Sanctuary, we were surprised
to see at least six others who had also just appeared
from around the globe. Some were there to work in the

sanctuary and learn everything that Wolfgang had to
offer. He needs helpers, who can support him in his
work. The constant nurturing of young plants, seed col-
lection, identification, storage, gardening, plantings all
take people power. While at times he has help, much of
the year he is on his own with his small family. Local In-
dians are loathe to stay at his sanctuary for long
periods, mainly because of the degree of isolation, with
no major towns being close by, and becaus Wolfgang
cannot offe wages.

In his article "Plants in Danger. What Can we do?", he
writes, "..we are passing through a period which could
be called the 'Dark Ages of Life'.

" What is important now is to traverse this time with
the least irreparable damage. It is the extinction of
species which has to be dreaded and utmost effort is re-
quired to prevent the catastrophe. There is nobody who
does not nave a share in the responsibility for life.

fl To inform oneself and others is one way of meeting
the challenge. One can also give moral, financial, or ac-
tive support to the numerous national and international
programmes and organizations for the preservation of
nature. One can render the most important help passive-
ly by refusing to buy products which result directly or in-
directly from the destruction of natural resour-
ces there is nobody who cannot do something to save

life, to save the Earth and to save ourselves".

The botanical sanctuary is a place inspired by love for
the Earth. It needs both financial and physical support
to ensure its survival and therefore the survival of count*
less endangered plant species. Write directly to
Wolfgang for more information about his work or about
volunteering your services, to:

Wolfgang Theverkauf Narayana Gurukula Alattil PO
North Wynad, Kerala,

Donations to the Sanctuary can be made payable to
the Rainforest Information Centre, PO Box 368 Lis-
more, NSW 2480, clearly slating where the monies be
directed.

17

India cconrd)

Vandana Shiva And
the Chipko Movement.

Vandana Shiva is one of the world's most prominent
radical scientists and a campaigner on the issues of
women, ecology and development and on the environ-
mental impact of science and technology policy.

She is a quantum physicist turned people's scientist
and she has the passion and conviction of a convert -
though her ideological enemies might call her a
recidivist.

Her road to Damacus was the journey back from On-
tario, where she did a doctorate in quantum theory, to
her native Uttar Pradesh, northern India; her flash of
light was an encounter with rural women of that region
involved in Chipko, a mass women's protest against
deforestation and resulting ecological destruction.

In her book "Staying Alive; Women, Ecology and
Development" she defines the links between ecological
crisis, colonialism and the oppression of women.

"I was studying the history of science and came across
Bacon's "The Masculine Birth of Time". I began to real-
ize how many very concious statements were made at
the time of the Enlightenment about the death of the
feminine.

"Nature, women and culture other than the dominant
Western culture were all turned into passive and inert
resources by this new reductionist perspective, which
then asserted itself as a value free perspective, as a
universal truth which allowed no room for other forms
of knowledge, other sciences, other ways of interpreting
the world"

Shiva considers development as applied in the Third
World the most brutal facet of this patriarchal system.
She terms it "maldeveiopment" because it "makes the
colonizing male the agent and the model of 'develop-
ment*.

"Women, the Third World and nature become under-
developed, first by definition, then through the process
of colonization, in reality."

What Shiva proposes is an alternative vision, one in-
spired by the women of Chipko*

The Chipko movement is outstanding for its
widespread, grassroots women's involvement.

In 1974, in the Reni forests of the Chamoli District of
Uttar Pradesh, the women were confronted with the
prospect of 2,500 tress being destroyed for commercial
exploitation. When the contractors arrived the women
went into the forests, joined hands and "hugged" the
trees ("Chipko" means "to hug").

The contractors withdrew and the forest was saved.
The Chipko raovment grew out of this protest. It now
spans the whole Himalayan region. 33 Chipko is Shiva's
model both for resistance and for change: she is a
spokesperson for the movement.

Her book is full of references to woman's ability to em-
pathise with nature, her ability to sutain life.

Was there a danger in emphasizing woman's role as
producer, sustainer and nurture^ of reinforcing the

reasons for women's
oppression? Would
it be more produc-
tive to get away
from the duality of
masculinity and
femininity ?

"In Indian cosmol-
ogy, we have
Purusha and Prak-
riti. Prakriti is the
femiriine force, the
force of nature; it is
a unifying force and
it is in women and men.

"There can be no dualism because Prakrit! sustains
life, not as some kind of esoteric construction but as an
everyday concept which organizes daily life.

"A Chipko woman who worships a tree goddess
doesn't separate the sacred from the secular; that wor-
ship forms part of the strength of her daily life and resis-
tance,

"Those strands of western eco-feminism which pick a
mother earth goddess to worship just lead to a dislo-
cated politics of escapism; they don't reduce the space
for the exploiter because their struggle is not rooted in
immediate daily survival/

A study of Chipko by a group of Pakistani women en-
vironmentalists concluded that it arose out of a specific
cultural and religious context which could not be
"transplanted".

So what are the alternative routes for global resistance
to environmental exploitation ?

"It's about tapping that sensitivity which is already
there, finding that extra bit of energy to mobilize, rather
than just feeling terrible and miserable, and in-
capacitated. Globally we are so linked; the linkage of
who lives how at whose cost is a critical one for
everybody."

Shiva does see a new solidarity emerging around
ecological struggle, because, she feels, we are far down
the road to destruction.

"I think we are entering a new period of eco-im-
perialism, when the dominant powers and industrial in-
terests sense they are losing control slightly. I do not
believe theirs can be a genuine concern.

Hope lies in the recovery of the feminine principle.

To be fully human involves respecting life and acting
on principles emergent from that respect for Ufe - to me
that is the basis of the ecological movement.

The fact that the movement has made the impact it
has shows that when people have adequate information
and the chance to act, they are, in increasing numbers,
saying no to the destruction of life.

"In the end this is about our democratic, as well as
biological, survival, "

(Edited version of an interview by Sara Dunn with
Vandana Shiva from The Canberra Times*, 13th May,
1989.)

"Staying Alive - Women, Ecology and Survival in India
* (224pp Zed Books Ltd., 57 Caledonian Rd., London
Nl 9BU ) is available from The World Rainforest Move-
ment, 87 Cantonment Rd,, 10250 Penang, Malaysia.

18

EFENDING
THE FOREST

0 U

X

1 1 ,"

'» > ...I"

V r / /

v IP

A CASE STUDY
OF SAN FERNANDO,
BUKiDNON, PHILI PPINES

at

KINAIYAHAN

FOUNDATION^ INC.

SERIES NO. 1 VCEB. 1990 "

the- Philippines

WORLD RAINFOREST REPORT SPONSORSHIP DRIVE

The quarterly publication of the Rainforest Information Centre the WORLD RAINFOREST
REPORT is now circulated in over 80 countries, and reaches a readership of academics, activists and
concerned people working to protect the worlds remaining tropical forests.

It is an authoritative source on the state of forest destruction, and on the various campaigns to halt this destruc-
tion. To quote Dr Paul Ehrlich, renowned biologist and author, " / think a lot of scientists like me
depend on WORLD RAINFOREST REPORT for information on what's happening".

The WRR is also distributed free of charge to many organisations, especially those in the
Third World. To maintain this service we need additional sponsorship.

We try to keep the subscription price and production costs down to the minimum. All
work on the WRR is donated by volunteers.

Jjt WE NEED HELP TO KEEP THIS VITAL PUBLICATION GOING *

BECOME A SPONSOR:
SUBSCRIBE or SPONSOR NOW— -BE INFORMED— -ACT FOR THE FORESTS!

NAME:__ SEND TO : R.I.C.

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9

I already receive W.R.R. and would like to SPONSOR:O$20, Q $ 40 ; O 560 • O other

I'd like to SUBSCRIBE and SPONSOR W.R.R.Q$ 35 Aust.0S4O Overseas

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make payable in Australian Dollars, and send to World Rainforest Report

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All sponsors will be listed in the World Rainforest Report.

•**.«•*••**»•« *******************************************************
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TO ALL OUR DEAR SUBSCRIBERS,

niTP to A COMPUTER ERROR IN OUR MAILING DEPARTMENT CERTAIN

o D f U yI™T^^^ one oR^u^F R Wm^ this

IS THE CASE FOR YOU PLEASE TELL US AND WE WILL RECTIFY THE

PROBLEM.

"World

Tropical Timber ban
in Massachusetts?

With the assistance of the Rainforest Action Network
(RAN), Massachusetts State Representative Lawrence
Alexander has drafted a bill that would prohibit the
state from purchasing wood grown in tropical rainforest
or products made up substantially of such wood. It is
believed to be the first such bill to be introduced at the
state level. RAN urges all concerned consumers to
boycott tropical timber. As one of the world's largest
consumers of tropical timber, the United States con-
tributes directly to rainforest destruction. For more in-
formation on the boycott contact RAK(301 Broadway
Suite A,San Francisco, CA 94133 USA Tel (415)398
4404

ACTION ALERT ACTION ALERT
ACTION ALERT ACTION ALERT

.ounaut)

Dharma Gaia:

A Harvest of Essays in Bud-
dhism and Ecology, edited by
Allan Hunt Badiner (Parallax
Press, $15)

Dharma Gaia explores the ground where Buddhism
and ecology meet. The writings of thirty celebrated
Budhhkt thinkers and ecologists (including Gary
Snyder, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joanna Macy, Joan Halifax,
Robert Aitken, Bill Devall, John Seed, Rick Fields, and
Derma Metzger) demonstrate how Buddhist philosophy
and practices can help us to renew our relationships
with one another, with other forms of life, and with the
Earth, Meditation, shifting views of perception, and the
emergence of an ecologically-minded communit ar
anion th theme discussed Wit forwar b th Dala Lama.

Shell Eucalypt Weyerhaeuser Action

Plantation in Thailand Bulletin

Royal Dutch Shell is intending to cover 200 square
kilometres of Thailand with a eucalypt woodchip farm.
It is highly unlikely that the primary tropical forests
within the concession area would be unscathed or left
standing. Despite reforestation hype the eucalypt planta-
tions in Thailand cannot be likened to forests because
they are razed every five or six years, which has dis-
astrous ecological consequences. As well as this, about
3000 local people would be evicted from the Shell
concession area.

If you are interested in shaming Shell out of this
project with a action please contact Melbourne RAG,
Joanna Sender

In response to RAN's call for a tropical-timber
boycott many RAN members have contacted Weyer-
haeuser and been told that Weyerhaeuser doesn't im-
port tropical hardwoods* This is not true. According
to shipping documents obtained by RAN, Weyer-
haeuser continues to be a major importer. Boycott
Weyerhaeuser,

"UNTIL S©Kt£oi4E Pfco>JeS TWER£'5 Kjo

-Suctf i-Mi^o As sustainable MAKl^E

MOST 'FLAY SAFE AH*>

LO«i tic*

19

World

Effects on Carbon
Storage of Conversion
of Old-Growth
Forests to Young
Forests.

An article published in Science, Vol 247 (9 Feb 1990)
debunks the currently fashionable suggestion that cut-
ting down old-growth forests and replacing them
with plantations is good for the planet because it in-
creases the amount of carbon stored in trees rather
than as C02 in the atmosphere.

The argument goes like this: Cut down an old growth
forest, and store it in the form of furniture or houses so
it won't decompose and put C02 into the atmosphere.
Then grow a plantation where the old growth was, and
because small trees grow into big trees, the amount of
carbon they contain will increase. Add this to the
carbon you have stored as furniture or houses and you
have more carbon stored in wood and less in the atmos-
phere as harmful C02.

Actually, it's not so simple, in the conversion of
trees into houses, most of the wood is lost on the
way in the form of branches, roots, bark, waste tim-
ber and saw dust, all of which decompose rapidly and
end up as nasty C02 in the atmosphere. In the simu-
lated harvest used in the article, about 42% of the
timber harvested ended up in forms such as structural
components of buildings. To make up for this loss of
carbon into the atmosphere, the new forest would
have to grow for 250 years.

Another factor, not considered in this study, is the fos-
sil fuel required to convert a tree into a useable wood.
In cutting, transporting and milling timber, more C02 is
added to the atmosphere - a fact that is conveniently
overlooked by those who see forestry as our saviour
from the greenhouse effect.

The forest used in this study is found in the Pacific
Northwest of the United States, ft seems probable that
in mature rainforest, the percentage of carbon that is
lost on the way to useable timber would be much
greater than the 58% figure here.

The study concludes: "Although reintroducing forests
to deforested regions will increase carbon storage in the
biota, conversion of old growth forests to younger
forests under current harvesting and use conditions has
added and wiU continue to add carbon to the atmos-
phere,"

Source: "Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of
Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests." by Harmon,
Ferrel and Franklin. Science, Vol, 247 (9 Feb 1990)
See also WRR 14 "Rainforests, The Greenhouse
Myth, and the Reafforestation Fantasy" by George
Marshall.

Prince Charles Calls
for Tropical-Timber
Boycott.

In an impassioned plea this February, Prince Charles
called on the world's developed nations to boycott tropi-
cal hardwoods and urged consumers to act on their
own. He also attacked the International Tropical Tim-
ber Organization and the United-Nations-backed Tropi-
cal Forest Action Plan.

"Deforestation has actually increased massively during
the time these two institutions have been at work," he
said. The World Rainforest Movement has demanded a
moratorium on the U.N, plan and has long accused the
ITTO of promoting the tropical-timber industry. Fur-
ther quotes from his speech:

"Even now, as the Penan in Sarawak are harassed
and even imprisoned for defending their own tribal
lands, and the Yanomamimof Brazil are driven into
extinction by measles, venereal disease or mercury
poisoning following the illegal invasion of their lands
by gold prospectors - even now, that dreadful pattern
of collective genocide continues..."

"These people are accomplished environmental scien-
tists, and for us to call them 'primitive' is both perverse
and patronising. .."

11 I fear that we will fail this particular challenge if
we are not prepared to accept that sustainable
development demands not just a range of different
management techniques and funding mechanisms,
but a different attitude towards the Earth and a less ar-
rogant, man-centred philosophy."

World Roundup

CcoHt'd)
Vanuatu

"A Taiwanese company, Tsiensou Enterprise Co^is
about to begin logging timber on the island of Maleluka,
Heavy equipment and about 50 workers Taiwan were ex-
pected to arrive in late April with about 200 people to
be employed lopcally, the company has signed a 40-year
agreement to log qand process timber in the country/'
(Source; Pacific Islands Monthly)

In October 1989, Clarence Marae, Vanuatu's trade
and Industry Secretary was fined $US 8,300 on charges
of bribery. He admitted receiving $US 14,000 from a
taiwanese logging company which had applied for a
licence to log rainforest on MaJeluka. The Vanuatu
government has rigid controls on logging licencesd are
restricted to protect the future of the small local
processing industry. The Island of Maleluka has the
lasty extensive tract of rainforest in Vanuatu.

Source: Traffic Bulletin 11:32 Pacific Islands Monthly,
Nov.'89 Jenks M. The Forests of Vanuatu. Forest
News 11 (3): 10- 11 in Tigerpaper XV(3)

Sarawak:

Bakun Dam Proposal
to be Revived?

The proposed Bakun Hydro-electric project is the
first of a series of large dams planned for the Upper
Rajang River Basin These are: Bakun (2,400 MW
planned to be commissioned in 1996) Murum (900MW
in the year 2000) Felagus (900MW) and Baleh
(950MW) Bakun was chosen to be the first because it
was considered to be relatively more accessible and
necessary to act as a sediment trap for the future
Pelagus Dam. The Bakun Dam is massive even by inter-
national standards: 2,400 MW generating capacity, (the
required generating capacity for peninsular Malaysia
was only 2,540 MW in 1985, Sarawak 180 MW and
Sabah 170 MW) with a catchment area of 14,750 sq km.
and a reservoir covering an area of 695 sq km.(bigger
than Singapore Island), assuming no interest charges
and no increase in costs, the cost of the dam will be
$7,815 million in 1985 pricesAn intergral part of the
project will be two 650 km submarine High Voltage
Direct Current cables to Peninsular Malaysia. The
Project will also displace about 4,300 people living in
the area.

The Malaysian Government has kept the feasibility
study report confidential and so information on the
project is limited. The project was shelved during hard
economic times in the 1980's but is currently being con-
sidered again.

The following is an excerpt from a paper on the dam
proposal by Gurmit Singh, delivered in 1986 when the
project was being considered for the first time: "Large
power projects like the Bakun Dam take us* further

21

down the path to centralised development where we
meet our energy requirements through fewer and more
concentrated sources. Aside from the security question
of being more susceptible to sabotage, it is more suited
to a centralised type of society where decision-making
and control of resources are centralised in only a few
hands. Are we willing or have we all agreed that that
form of society is more meaningful for us? From the en-
vironmental viewpoint, centralisation is problematic. It
concentrates a lot of problems eg. pollution, and con-
centrates negative environmental impacts, possibly to
the point of no return,"

Tropical Forest
Peoples Project:

Developing a Forest Peoples
Charter*

A new initiative by the World Rainforest Movement,
follows on from work done over the last three years. It
aims to chart the response of a people's response to the
tropical forest crisis, based on securing the rights of
those who live in and from the forests to control their
lands and destinies.

The project has three basic aims;

L To help create create an effective global network of
forest peoples JUl too often, forest people aare fighting
the battle to save their land alone, often unaware that
their problems are shared by many other peoples
around the world, there is an urgent need for these
people to link up and share their experiences*

2, To help prepare a charter of forest people's
demands. The main solutions to the problem of tropical
deforestation evolved in the west such as trhe Tropical
Forestry Action Plan have developed without consult-
ation with forest peoples and little concern for their
rights.As a result these solutions will only continue the
"top down 11 processes of development that are dispos-
sessing forest peoples and destroying their forests. This
project addresses the urgent need for forest peoples to
make their own views and plans more widely known and
to intervene in policy making at national, regional and
international levels. It is proposed that the charter be
presented at the United Nationsl992 conference on en-
vironment and development.

X To demonstrate the existence of real and practical
examples of community based, sustainable forest
management projects. Such models are urgently needed
to halt deforestation and the destruction of forest
peoples livelihoods and provide for the growing
demands of Third World economies there is an urgent
need to pull together all the information and documen-
tation on real and working examples of such community
based sustainable forest management projects (and to
look at examples where this approach has failed.)

For further information contact: Marcus Colchester,
World Rainforest, 8 Chapel Row, Chadlington OX7
SNA, England

BAN

JAPAN CAMPAIGN

In October 1988 the international 'Ban Japan from
the Tropical rainforest' campaign was launched. The
campaign directs itself to the rapid destruction of the
remaining rainforests in South East Asia and in other
parts of the world due to commercial logging by big
Japanese trading houses. The present rate of deforesta-
tion in South East Asia has increased to a dramatic
20,000 square km per year, 80 m per second! Japan is
the greatest logger overseas and holds the largest share
in the tropical hardwoods trade. For this reason,
Thailand, the Pliwppinnes and some of the Indonesian
islands have already been stripped of their natural
forest. Japanese firms are now focussing their logging
activities to Sarwak, Sabah and Papua New Guinea.

In September last year the second international action
day foctissed on the destructive logging and hardwood
trading activities of Mitsubishi and other Japanese firms
(e.g. Marubeni, Oltoh). Sixteen countries participated.
Front page news and serious attention was paid by TV
and other media to this tragedy almost everywhere.

On the 18th of April this year another day of actions
was held. Some of the world wide actions were:

- U,S.: full page advertisement in the New York times
and demonstration to the Japanese embassy; - Nether-
lands: symbolic blockade in front of the Japanese embas-
sy, big 'writing action'; - Switzerland: spectacular action
with a huge tree trunk on a Mitsubishi car, and distribu-
tion oflesflets under window-wipers of Mitsubishi cars; -
Belgium: symbolic blockade and distribution of
brochures and posters; - Germany: they will spread out
an enormous banner on a large square; -Australia: a
demonstration, distribution of a film on Mitsubishi ac-
tion in September last year on a large scale*

Paul Wolvekamp, FOE-The Netherlands Darnrak 26,
1012 U Amsterdam, tel. 31.20.221366, fax: 31.20.275287

Campaign Up sets Mitsubishi:

A representative of the newly formed environment
department of the Mitsubishi Corporation talked to
NGO representatives at the recent ITTO meeting in
Bali. He asked the environment movement to call off its
campaign against Mitsubishi and talk to them instead.
He said that Mitsubishi imported only 2% of the rain-
forest logs entering Japan and that the campaign was un-
fair. It was pointed out to him that Mitsubishi was the
largest buyer of Indonesian plywood.

It is gratifying to sec that the campaign against Mit-
subishi is having some impact. It is hard to see their
new environment department being anything more than
a public relations exercise.

GODZILLA INVADES SAN
FRANCISCO

Mitsubishi Headquarters
Targetted For Attack By
Japanese Monster Environ-
mentalist

SAN FRANCISCO (April 18, 1990) Godzilla, Japan s
leading environmentalist, has agreed to lead a
demonstration against Japanese environmental prac-
tices. At 10:00 am, at 50 California St., San Francisco,
at the office of Mitsubishi Corporation, Godzilla will
join the Rainforest Action Network and the Internation-
al Rivers Network to protest Mitsubishi's logging in the
tropical rainforest of Sarawak, Borneo, as well as
Japan's foreign lending for destructive dam projects in
developing countries,

"Since my victorious battle with the Smog Monster, I
have dedicated my life to fighting the destroyers of the
Earth", roared the giant reptile, Japan is the leading im-
porter of tropical rainforest timbers, and the leading
hinder of disastrous water development projects in the
Third World.

TROPICAL TIMBER Mitsubishi Corp. and other
Japanese corporations are involved in 24 hour logging
operations with the use of flood lights. Despite
worldwide protest, the rapid logging of Borneo's tropi-
cal rainforest is accelerating. Japan is the leading im-
porter of tropical timber from Southeast Asia. "People
all over the world are denouncing the environmental
atrocities committed by the Japanese logging corpora-
tions such as Mitsubishi and Sumitomo. The logging in
Borneo must stop if the indigenous people are to sur-
vive, says Randy Hayes, Director of the Rainforest Ac-
tion Network."

OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT In the last two years,
Japanese overseas development aid has doubled, bring-
ing its total aid and loan financing package to nearly
$22 billion per year. Though the single largest develop-
ment financier in the world, Japan has no established
environmental assessment policies, either domestically,
or internationally. A huge amount of those overseas
funds are paying for destructive water development
projects,

"Japan's monstrous destructive capacity requires
monstrous solutions", said Juliette Majot of the Interna-
tional Rivers Network. Godzilla, the Rainforest Action
Network and the International Rivers Network actively
support the work of Japanese environmentalists. Today
they are joining thousands of other protesters in the US
and worldwide, to demand that both Japanese corpora-
tions and Japanese development aid stop destructive en-
vironmental practices,

For more information contact: Pamela Wellner, Rain-
forest Action Network, (415) 398-4404 or Juliette
Majot, International Rivers Network, (415) 986-4694.

A SUMMARY OF THE COMMISSION OF IN-
QUIRY INTO ASPECTS OF THE TIMBER
INDUSTRY IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

by George Marshall

The "Commission of Inquiry into Aspects of the
[Papua New Guinea] Timber Industry" is a key docu-
ment for the rainforest movement for the way that it
bares the bones of the PNG timber industry. No
other tropical country has commissioned a report that
has been so honest or outspoken. Harnett's conclusions
are damning. He describes some of the companies as
"roaming the country with the self-assurance of rob-
ber barons" fooling land owners and bribing
politicians. He describes the timber industry as "out of
control" and concludes "there can be no doubt that the
timber industry, by its very nature, is conducive to
acts of a criminal nature".

He reveals the virtual total lack of a government
forestry policy, "lurching from one concession to
anotber*,*witb no dear sense of purpose". The
Department of Forests is obscured by a "fog of iner-
tia" and of "meandering intellectual neglect". The post
independence organisation of the Department is "as if a
mad butcher attacked the carcass of the National
Forestry Service with his chopper".

THE COMPANIES

Barnett found tax fraud on a vast scale. He says;
"All trails lead to transfer pricing". Transfer pricing is
a mechanism where by timber is sold below market
price (and often below cost price) and the real profits
are made overseas. In 1986 and 1987 he estimates that
PNG lost up to US$27.5 million in foreign currency
through transfer pricing.

In 1986, one company, Shin Ashigawa, declared a loss
of nearly US$90,000. On investigation it had made a
profit of US$999,000. The difference was held by its
Japanese parent company. Since 1975 only 2 timber
companies have ever declared a profit. ,

Many of the logging companies were subsidiaries of
foreign mar keting and processing companies, in par*
ticular the Japanese Sogo Shosha; a perfect set up
for transfer pricing. For example, United Timbers,
is financed entirely by, and supplies logs exclusively
to, Mitsubishi Corporation* In under 2 years it had
transfer priced US$1.5 million to Mitsubishi, and mis-
declared logs to steal another US$300,000 in 1986
alone.

Companies without any logging experience have been
given conces sions. Straits Engineering Co., a marine en-
gineering company, was given a 484,000 ha, conces-
sion when over a third of the landowners had
never been consulted. The landowners received royal-
ties of US 50 cents per cubic metre, which they could

only spend in the company shop.

LANDOWNERS

In theory the traditional landowners in PNG have
control over 373 their ancestral lands, unlike
Malaysia, Philippines and Indone sia. In practice, the
landowners were deceived, systematically cheated,
divided amongst themselves, and played off against
each other. Landowner companies were set up and
directed by the compa nies, and the local "bigmen" were
bought off Barnett says that "the snare [of profits]
being received by landowners is in fact ridiculously
low."

ENVIRONMENT

Barnett was not required to discuss the ecological ef-
fects. He regards forests in the report as a "resource' 1
and calls for "sustainable logging methods" to be ap-
plied. However, he did com mission a number of en-
vironmental studies, which reveal the usual litany of wan-
ton destruction; "local extinctions", soil erosion, reef
damage from siltation, pollution of drinking water, to-
tally blocked streams, nutrient loss, weed infestation

Barnett said of one concession in New Ireland: "My
impression of logged over areas from the air was that
it appeared like a dog with mange/ One of the worst
operations was the Vanimo conces sion operated by
the West Australian firm of Bunnings. He referred to
"highly destructive lugging practices", "mass destruc
tion" and to one part of the operation as "a disaster

23

No company investigated by the Commission was
satisfying its permit conditions; social, financial, or en-
vironmental. 75% of logging companies currently
operating have broken the Environ mental Planning
Act by not submitting an Environmental Impact As-
sessment.

CORRUPTION

Corruption is rife. Bamett describes it as "a major
social sickness". Santa Investments was found to be brib-
ing local land owners, 4 members of parliament,
forestry staff, Minister of Forests Ted Diro,, who
received US$127,000 and his successor, Paul Torato" It
gave the Premier of New Ireland and the Provincial
Secretary a vast array of donations, cars, and boats.

Ted Diro certainly rates as the biggest timber crook.
The Commission found that he'd received $US127,500
from the head of the Indonesian military. On becom -
ing Minister of Forests he assisted many of his cronies
get concessions. The best concession he gave to Angus
Trading, a company in which he had a 30% sharehold-
ing. Angus turned out to be a vast transfer pricing rack-
et from which Diro would have made over US$5 mil-
lion. There were no conditions enforced, and the
result was "reckless destruction of [the] forests'*

The Inquiry was clearly regarded as an embarassment
to the gover nment and a threat to some of the most
powerful people in the country. Justice Barnett is sure
that this is why he was stabbed within an inch of his

life outside his home. Extensions were given to the
Commission on a week by week basis, and, when the
Report was released after 2 years in June 1990, it was
immediate ly suppressed. Most of it has never been
printed, and there is 3m3 no copy available to the
people of PNG,

Now, nearly a year since the Final Report, there have
been NO prosecutions, Ted Diro has been promoted
to Deputy Prime Minister, Santa continue to operate.
Runnings have left, but only through choice. The
Finance Minister of Central Province said in January
1990 "Most of the companies [that fled the coutry
during the Inquiry] have returned and have gone
right hack to their dirty activities, that are destroying
the land, environment, and the local people."

WHAT WE ARE DOING

We have produced a 34 page "Summary" of the Inquiry,
It is avail able from RIC for $5.00. It is also on Pegasus
on the new confer ence regnewguinea, which is interna-
tionally accessible. We are now preparing this Summary
for a large print run, translation, and distribution to the
traditional landowners in PNG.

UPDATE OF THE
NEW GUINEA
ISLANDS
CAMPAIGN

SUMMARY OF THE COMMISSION
OF INQUIRY

As described above, we have produced a Summary of
the Commission of Inquiry into Aspects of the [Papua
New Guinea] Timber Indus try. We are currently edit-
ing it and translating it into tok pisin and motu, and
discussing production and distribution with PNG
NGO's. Hopefully we should be dumping them in
thousands.

TROPICAL FOREST ACTION PLAN
FOR PNG.

As discussed below, George Marshall attended the
PNG TFAP donors meeting in PNG and presented a
detailed critique arguing for a ban on all export log-
ging. We are watching for new developments, in par-
ticular the license moratorium, which is due to start in
July 1990,

TASMANIA SPEAKING TOUR

George Marshall had an intensive speaking tour in
Tasmania at the invitation of the Asia Pacific Action
Group, raising awareness of the New Guinea issues, and
i merest in the APAG group.

24

MEETING WITH HASYRUL
HARAHAP

Yos Suprapto and George Marshall were amongst 6
environmentalists who met Harahap, the Indonesian
Minister of Forests in Sydney, The meeting was not
productive. He claimed that ALL logging in Indonesia
is sustainable, so there was no much grounds for dis
cussion. We told him that the treatment of tribal
people was a disgrace, and that we would keep fight-
ing until Australia bans imports of Indonesian timber.
We got to listen to him bullshit ting on about rain-
forests being the "lungs of the earth", and he got a good
set of full face photo's for our files.

CAMPAIGNS

There will be campaigns directed against: -ANZ Bank
over their logging operation in Madang Province, PNG. -
Marubeni Corporation's woodchipping operation in
Bintuni Bay, the largest area of mangroves in South
East Asia that has not yet been chipped or cleared.
40,000 ha. of the fully gazetted Bintuni Bay Strict Na-
ture Reserve, was de-gazetted by the head of the
Department of Forests to increase the concession. The
infomration is being prepared now, and we hope to run
a sticker victimisation blitz. More details in WRR 17

NEWS

*The world's largest plywood factory will be built in
Sorong, Irian Jaya. The Department of Forests says
that transmigrant workers will be preferred, -according
to Norman Myers, deforestation in Indonesia is now
running at 12,000 km2/yr (3,280ha, a day !) This is the
second largest rate in the world after Brazil, and is 2.5
times that of Malaysia, -the Indonesia TFAP is now
well underway. We still know nothing about this.. any in-
formation please. -Bas Suebu, the governor of Irian
Jaya, admitted in July 1989, that 20 years of "develop-
ment" had failed to improve the lives of the indigenous
people* -the Department of Forests in Irian Jaya es-
timates that 1,322,000 ha. of land is "critical*. - Bun
nings Brothers has sold Vanimo Forest Products, (see
WRR 14) in West Sepik to a Malaysian firm, WTK
Realty. Of course, the customary landowners were
never consulted. WTK's general manag er has no of-
fice in Vanimo, and was operating from the Islander
Hotel where he was thrown out for non payment of
bills. One of WTK's first acts was to fire most of the
PNG national staff and replace them with Malaysians,
WTK's owner, Mr. Hi., is a well known timber crook,
oft mentioned in the Inquiry for transfer pricing and
illegal logging. Vanimo is also the constituency of the
Minister of Forests Karl Stack.

THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA TROPICAL FOREST ACTION

PLAN AND MORATORIUM - A PERSONAL REPORT.

George Marshall ses before the moratorium. Within 2 hours, he was an-
The TFAP has been heavily criticised, most recently nouneing 6 at a press conference. He has only just

in "TFAP; What Progress ? rr (Lohmannn and Col- been sloped from trying to issue another 4 on top of

Chester 1990) which calls for a withdrawal of all fund- these. Last time there was a license moratorium in 4

ing. The PNG TFAP was meant to be a clean sheet, provinces, Stack still went ahead and issued 4 new con-

The king bee, Jim Douglas, said "it is a perfect opportu cessions in those provinces. Stack has already been
nity to come up with new ideas and policies the like of under investigation by the fraud squad and has been ac-

which we should see a lot more of from the bank in the cused of receiv ing a bribe of US$500,000. He's not a

future" (The BuUe tin 29.8.89). If it is, then God help us. man to be trusted,

To begin with, as usual it was impossible to get a copy So, at the end of the meeting, Australia had pledged
of the PNG TFAP Report, and the NGO's, whose con- US$2.4 mil lion towards the PNG TFAP, no one else
saltation was so lauded, had to scrape up leaked had pledged anything other than hot air. Some of the
photocopies. The Report itself was incom pelent in the projects looked very promising, such as the Landowner
extreme. Awareness project which will talk directly to land-
Rural customary landowners make up over 90% of owners about what they want, and, I hope, steer them
the population and logging takes place on their lands, away from forestry. I don't know how far the World
So, of course, the TFAP team never found the time Heritage Areas will get. The people want development,
to talk any of them. In the report they received 2 not National Parks, and will not comply unless their
pages which noted that they are a problem for develop- aspirations are met. Unless very large sums of money
ment and beyond the scope of the Report. become available, with full committment from the

-The TFAP proposed major new forestry legislation, government and people, I can't see it working too well.
It totally ignored the vast level of abuse of existing I attended the conference to push for a ban on all log-
laws, and made no recommendations of prosecuting ghig, and for the position in my "Critique of the PNG
those mentioned by the Baraett Commission. TFAP" which had been endorsed by WRM, RAN,
-As usual the TFAP Report talked of sustained RIC, APAG, UKFSP, GECG, GALG, and a'lot of
yield as the "guiding principle of management". It other initials.

could equally well have been talking of the Easter I learned 2 things from this conference. Firstly I

Bunny, Sustainable forestry, it noted, could learned that one has to say exactly what one thinks. I

n range.,irom selective Iogging...to clearfell ing and hated the whole game of it, the way that everything had

replanting" - which leaves the options fairly open. The to be padded with phoney deference, the way that

sustainable harvest for PNG was guessed from data every NGO position had to be watered down to make it

that was up to 50 years old or not even relevant to palatable. The First NGO statement asked for deferral

PNG at all. The TFAP then proposed that the of approval of new licences until clan registration has

donor countries should compensate 33 PNG for the been enacted. I was shot down when I said that the

US$70 million it would lose by reducing cut to a rt sus~ very least that we should push for is the unconditional

tamable yield" and that this would go towards creat- moratorium on new licenses. Then, only when Stack

ing World Heritage Areas. had taken the initiative, the NGO's came behind this.

The donors meeting was held in Port Moresby from Secondly I learned that the deference to NGO opinion

the 3rd to the 5th March 1990. The problems with the is pure illusion; there is no democracy, and the only

TAFP Report were immediately apparent. Due to the power that we have is ideas. If we don't hammer at the

totally innacurate information, the reduced, "sus- truth...that there is no sus tainable commercial log-

tainable", level turned out to be 2.2 million m3/yr. ging, that the timber industry destroys whole nations,

higher than the present harvest ! the people, cultures, and lifeforms...then we are playing

The TFAP Report had given NO consideration at all the same game as the timber industry and playing jnto

as to how to spend the money for the World Heritage their hands*

Areas. Conservation areas would only be created if the I understand very well the pragmatic argument for

landowners agreed, and there would have to be some going a little bit at a time, so as not to jeopardise small

kind of benefit for them, but they don't enter into gains by rash demands. I also understand that the

the World Bank scheme of things. earth is dying, that we can only be saved by a total

So the donors were confused. Karl Stack, the Minister revolution in consciousness and economic structures,

of Forests, who was chairing the meetings, engineered a and that individuals can be bought. The crudest way to

discussion on logging moratoria and, out of the bag, an- buy people is with money. The best way is to make

nounced a 2 year moratorium on the issue of new licen- them feel important, make them use your language, lis-

ses starting in July 1990. "Wow", went the conference, ten to them, tell them that you'll get upset and not

"this is a real step forward," Well ,in some ways it is, talk to them if they say the wrong things, and then do

but it should be remembered that Stack is a very dodgy exactly what you were going to do anyway,

character. He stands to lose much of his ministerial WE NEED REVOLUTION NOT REFORM !
power in a restructur ing of forestry in July 1990. So,

the announcement of a moratorium will greatly in- The World Bank Tropical Forest Action Plan for

crease his power to issue licences in the interim. To Papua New Guinea: A Critique" (44pp.) is available

begin with he was saying that he had to issue* 4 hcen- from RIC for $7.50, or can be found on reg,newguinea

The Amazon

Colombia: Tribes Get
Half of Amazon

In February, asserting that Indians are the best guar-
dians of the rainforest, the Colombian government
recognized native land rights to half the Colombian
Amazon, Encompassing some of the Amazon's most
pristine forest, the new reserve, roughly the size of
Washington, is home to some 55,000 Indians, and
brings the legally recognized Indian land in the Colom-
bian Amazon to 69,000 sqaure miles. The decrees
granting the reserve, which are based on an old
Spanish colonial law that says the state has no right to
lands It has never conquered, acknowledge Indian land
rights more extensively than any other Amazonian
country.

By law the reserves now belong to the Indian com-
munities in perpetuity and cannot be sold.

The reasons for the government's action are com-
plex, but they revolve around two main factors. The
first is legal: the lands "handed back* already belong to
the Indians. The second concerns the preservation of
the rainforest. The most effective way to protect the
nations forests is to mhand it back to the people who
know how to use it without disrupting the
ecosystem irretrievably.

Th Indians view nature and the whole of creation as
an intricate network of giving and receiving. They
believe that the forms they see in the forest are the
outward manifestation of what anthropologists have
translated as "essence" or "energy 11 According to In-
dians the amount of "essence 11 is limited so it has to be
recycled among the different species, each having its
right quota, If anyone consumes too much of a certain
plant or animal, their essence becomes visible to the
guardians of the plants or animals, who hunt them
down.

An individual's whole life is based on this system of
giving and receiving from the forest. So too the local
economy, both within the local community and with
neighbouring communities, relies heavily on the prin-
ciple of exchange among human beings and with the
rest of nature. The traditional economy of the Indians
is almost the exact opposite of a market economy, in
which a person's status increases with their wealth

2

and possessions. In the Indian community, a person who
accumulates is evidently one who lacks social relations
with others and has no one with whom to share.

In a bold and farsighted manner, the Columbian
government is encouraging the indigenous communities
of the Amazon to return to their traditions and cultures
and has given them the space and authority to do so,
Moreover, it expects that this will lead to the protec-
tion of the rainforest. At least in the Amazon,
Columbia appears to have got its values straight - and
the word is spreading, Bolivia is now seeking advice
from Columbian lawyers on how to create reserves for
the Indians of its Amazon region. Who else will follow
suit?

Source: New Scientist 16-12-89

What You Can Do:

Write a letter to the new President of Brazil (elected
since the above decision was made) congratulating him
on his election and Columbia's decision to give the In-
dians their land. Urge him to resist any attempts which
may be made to try and make him compromise the
government's stand. Address:

Dr. Cesar Gavira

President of Colombia

Palicio de Norino

Bagota D.E.

Colombia

South America

Amazon (ccnt'dy

Brazil's New Environ-
ment Secretary Vows
to Fight Acre Road

To the surprise of rainforest activists the world
over, newly elected Brazilian President Fernando Col-
lor de Mello has appointed renowned environmen-
talist Dr. Jose Lutzenberger to the post of Secretary
of the Environment. Lutzenberger, who over the last
twenty years has led the fight to save the Amazon and
to protect Indian lands, has vowed to continue his
work without compromise, and* in particular, to
block construction of the last section of the Acre
Road, which would give the Japanese timber industry
increased access to the Amazon through Peruvian
ports on the Pacific,

"The only people interested in that road are the
Japanese wood industry/ Lutzenberger said recently.
It would be disastrous for the Amazon. The private
talks I had with Mr. Collor lead me to think that the
road is not going forward/' The unexpected appoint-
ment is widely viewed as an indication that the conser-
vative Collor is committed to repairing Brazil's badly
damaged international image on environmental mat-
ters. Lutzenberger, whom the Swedish Parliament
voted a "Right Livelihood" award in 1988 (the awards
are considered an alternative Nobel prize), has long
been a vociferous critic of official Brazilian develop-
ment policy in the Amazon. An agronomist by train-
ing, in 1971 he helped found one of southern Brazil's
most militant ecological organizations. In 1984 he tes-
tified before the U,S, Congress against a World Bank
loan for development of the western Amazon, and the
loan was eventually denied. Lutzenberger's position is
expected to have real teeth. Armed with a recent
$117 million World Bank loan for environmental
education, research, and protection, Lutzenberger will
be Brazil's top environmental official, with authority
over environmental units in each of Brazil's twelve
government ministries. "Priority number one is
Amazonia," Lutzenberger said on the day of his ap-

2

point menu rr We must reverse the devastation there."
Among other important steps, he has vowed to end
tax subsidies for ranching and to promote debt-for- na-
ture swaps in Amazonia. F ^^^^^\

What You Can Do

For Dr. Jose Lutzenberger to make Brazilian Presi-
dent Collor follow through on his commitment to
protect the Amazon, he needs our support right now.
Lutzenberger will be facing tremendously powerful,
entrenched interests: loggers, miners, cattle ranchers,
construction companies. He was named in part be-
cause of the international respect he commands; our
3m3 strong support will strengthen his position.
Please send letters and telexes to President Collor
along the following lines;

Dear Mr. President:

We strongly support your appointment of Dr. Jose
Lutzenberger as Secretary of the Environment. Dr.
Lutzenberger is a committed and capable environmen-
talist of international stature. Your selection of him
suggests a willingness to find new solutions for the
very difficult environmental problems that your
country faces. We congratulate you on this
courageous step.

Send telexes to number 613117. Send letters to:
Exmo, Sr., Presidente da Republica do Brazil, Fernan-
do Collor de Mello, Palacio do Planalto, 70.150
Brazilia D.F., Brasil. Postage for a 1-page (1-ounce)
letter is 90 cents,

(Environmental Defense Fund Sierra Club)

BRAZIL'S UNION
OF INDIGENOUS
NATIONS IS
AWARDED 1990
ONASSIS PRIZE

Ailton Krenak: The Indians as Allies for the Future
"We have lived in this place for a long time, a very
long time, since the time when the world did not yet
have this shape, We learned with the ancients that we
are a tiny part of this immense universe, fellow
travellers with all the animals, the plants and the
waters. We are all a part of the whole, we cannot
neglect or destroy our home* And now we want to talk

Amazon

ia tiUK& who cannot yet manage to see the world in this
way, to say to them that together we have to take care
of the boat in which we are all sailing"

The 1990 Onassis Prize for Man and Society -ARIS
TOTELIS- has been jointly awarded to the Union of
Indigenous Nations (UNI) and its national coordinator
Ailton Krenak. Announcing the award, one of four
Onassis Prizes, the president of the Onassis Foundation
said: "The Onassis Prizes honour persons and or-
ganizations whose contributions in all sectors of contem-
porary life are characterized by dedication to human
values as conceived in Greek philosophy and culture".
In a letter to Ailton Krenak telling him of the award,
the Foundation explained:

"You, and the Union of Indian Nations which you
founded, are being honoured for your extraordinary
work in protecting the indigenous Indian peoples of tht
Amazon region of Brazil and the rain forests in which
they live".

In a letter accepting the prize Ailton Krenak writes:
"I consider this award to be recognition and support
that will help in carrying on the work I have been
engaged in over recent years, together with various
citizens groups in Brazil, in defending indigenous
peoples' rights to their lands and to a stable environ-
ment for future generations. The prize money will
constitute an important contribution to the programme
of recuperation of degraded forest areas in indian
lands, and of stimulating the increase in these same
areas of wild animal populations threatened with extinc-
tion, being carried out by the Indigenous Research
Centre 11 In Sao Paulo today Ailton Krenak said: "I
hope that Brazil will now pay a little more attention to
the work we have been doing, and that we do not see a
repeat of what happened last year when the UN
awarded a Global 500 prize for the environment to
Yanomami Indian Davi Kopenawa. Despite this award
the rights of the Yanomami people continue not to be
respected or recognized and the Yanomami are current-
ly threatened with genocide, to the international shame
of Brazil". Ailton Krenak has announced that he will ask
Davi Yanomami to accompany him to the award
ceremony in Athens on April 5th.

Sustainability

COMMENT: FROM

UNCLE SCROOGE'S MONEY BIN

BUT,,,, the six zillion megadollar question remains -
Is there any real agreement over the term "sustainable"
when applied to commercial logging, or indeed, is
there any such animal as sustainable logging?

So far as I am aware there has never been a successful
example of "sustainable" logging of primary rainforest
(see the report mentioning Aila Keito's report on Sus-
tainability in the Qld. Forestry Commission in this edi-
tion of WRR.) In fact I would like to contend that
the notion of "sustainable" logging in tropical forest
is, at this stage, little more than a catchcry invented by
the timber industry to justify its continued desecration
of the earth's forest, particularly in the Third World.
As Professor Len Webb wrote in an article in World
Rainforest Report 13,

"I ...consider that the preservation of the tropical rain-
for est is in principle non-negotiable."

Until human interaction with the rainforest environs
are based on a more sophisticated understanding than
that of the profit motive ,then, in my opinion, we should
heed Professor Webb's advice. If that means banning
logging altogether in the rainforests, so be it.

Historically, the term "sustainable 11 has been used to
obscure the the fact that commercial logging has
been overwhelmingly detrimental to forests. Industry ex-
perts have often invoked the dubious notion of "sus-
tainability" as a an argument in favour of further
desecration. This view point is a form of ecological il-
literacy which sees forests as little more than a whole
bunch of trees, rather than as a multitude of complex in-
terconnected living systems.

Professor Len Webb writes: Given the global

decline of forests for a wide variety of reasons, and the
emergence of wide national movements against tropical
deforestation, these "negligible" examples of sustained
yield are as ludicrous as they are misleading" (from :
Prof. LJ, Webb's article in WRR 13, Statment to
Rebut Sustained Yield Arguments by Forestry in
Nth. Qld, Tropical Rainforests)*

It is as well to be aware that the tactics of the logging
iiidus try including "sympathetic 11 corporations,have
been to generate confusion in the ranks of our move-
ment and the public-at-largc by paying lip service to en-
vironmental awareness and by tokenistic displays of con-
cern where it does not interfere with profit.

In fact big business is rushing to exploit the "green"
market created by public awareness of environmental is-
sues, in the most superficially commercial manner (see
article "Dangers and Advantages of Going Green", in
Business Review Weekly, April 1990).

My reasons for printing sections of this article are to
draw attention to the controversy surrounding the no-
tion of "sustainability" and the ways in which this term
has been used to justify the destruction of the earth's
forests - we would appreciate any feedback from our
readers on this issue*

- Uncle Scrooge

28

Amazon Ccont'd)

Colombia: Tribes Get
Half of Amazon

Id February, asserting thai Indians are the best guar-
dians of the rainforest, the Colombian government
recognized native land rights to half the Colombian
Amazon. Encompassing some of the Amazon's most
pristine forest, the new reserve, roughly the size of
Washington, is home to some 55,000 Indians, and
brings the legally recognized Indian land in the Colom-
bian Amazon to 69,000 sqaure miles. The decrees
granting the reserve, which are based on an old
Spanish colonial law that says the state has no right to
lands it has never conquered, acknowledge Indian land
rights more extensively than any other Amazonian
country.

By law the reserves now belong to the Indian com*
muni ties in perpetuity and cannot be sold.

The reasons for the government's action are com-
plex, but they revolve around two main factors. The
first is legal: the lands "handed back 1 already belong to
the Indians. The second concerns the preservation of
the rainforest. The most effective way to protect the
nations forests is to mhand it back to the people who
know how to use it without disrupting the
ecosystem irretrievably.

Th Indians view nature and the whole of creation as
an intricate network of giving and receiving. They
believe that the forms they see in the forest are the
outward manifestation of what anthropologists have
translated as "essence* or "energy" According to In-
dians the amount of "essence" is limited so it has to be
recycled among the different species, each having its
right quota. If anyone consumes too much of a certain
plant or animal, their essence becomes visible to the
guardians of the plants or animals, who hunt them
down.

An individual's whole life is based on this system of
giving and receiving from the forest. So too the local
economy, both within the local community and with
neighbouring communities, relies heavily on the prin-
ciple of exchange among human beings and with the
rest of nature. The traditional economy of the Indians
is almost the exact opposite of a market economy, in
which a person's status increases with their wealth

and possessions. In the Indian community, a person who
accumulates is evidently one who lacks social relations
with others and has no one with whom to share*

In a bold and farsighted manner, the Columbian
government is encouraging the indigenous communities
of the Amazon to return to their traditions and cultures
and has given them the space and authority to do so.
Moreover, it expects that this will lead to the protec-
tion of the rainforest. At least in the Amazon,
Columbia appears to have got its values straight - and
the word is spreading. Bolivia is now seeking advice
from Columbian lawyers on how to create reserves for
the Indians of its Amazon region. Who else will follow
suit?

Source: New Scientist 16-12-89

What You Can Do:

Write a letter to the new President of Brazil (elected
since the above decision was made) congratulating him
on his election and Columbia's decision to give the In-
dians their land. Urge him to resist any attempts which
may be made to try and make him compromise the

YANOMAMI

The devastation of the Yanomami people, their land
and their culture is continuing* An estimated 40*000
gold miners have invaded their territory in the remote
western Amazon near the Venezualan border.

YANOMAMI UPDATE 29th MARCH 1990
Brazil's newly installed President Fernando Collo de
Mello guaranteed headlines both locally and abroad last
weekend by choosing the lands of the Yanomami for his
first official visit since taking office and by ordering
Federal Police chief Romeu Tuma to dynamite the land-
ing-strips constructed illegally in the area by invading
garimpeiros (gold-prospectors). However, though some
aspects of the presidential visit suggest that Collor may
act on the question with more coherence and integrity
than his predecessor Jose Sarney, other factors inspire
reservations.

In the first place, it should be noted that Collor's
priority on the visit was not his encounter with the
Yanomami of Surucucus but an inspection of the local
base of the much-criticised militarisation project known
as "Calha Norte". The fact that the president wore an
army uniform to the Yanomami area can be interpreted
as a clear signal that the region's destiny remains in the
hands of the military, who have a history of collabora-
tion with the invaders and have publicly advocated al-
lowing garimpeiros to remain in the area.

IRRECONCILABLE OPPOS1TES

At a meeting in Brasilia before the presidential visit,
Collor decided that Calha Norte should continue, and
even be considered a priority, as long as its execution
gave "maximum emphasis to environmental preserva-
tion". What this means in practice is not clear, since the
existing conception and declared objectives of Calha
Norte are completely imcompatible with environmental
preservation and the welfare of the region's indigenous
communities.

The emphasis on reconciling the practically irreconcil-
able was also present in the speech Collor delivered to
an audience consisting mainly of garimpeiros shortly
after arrival in Roraima (the state which contains the
Yanomami lands), Th President appealed for recogni-
tion of the Yanomami's rights and referred to "our in-
digenous brothers", while at the same time defending
the "right to work" of the garimpeiros and claiming to
recognize their illegal activity as an "economic necessity
for Roraima". Throughout the speech, Collor insisted
that his aim was to "reconcile development and environ-
mental preservation 11 .

YANOMAMI UPDATE 31st MAY 1990
This is the latest update on thesituation of the
Yanomami Indians produced by the CCPYCEDI

Sao Paulo, 31 May 1990 After 75 days of the govern-
ment of President FernandoCoIlor de Mello no solu-
tion is in sight for the crisiswhich has struck the
Yanomami since the invasion of theirlands by
thousands of gold-seekers known as garimpeiros -
despite all the Presidential promises and posturing.
Inoutline, the current situation is the following:!. The

invasion of the Yanomami lands continues. Lar-
genumbers of garimpeiros (at least 8,000) remain in the
heart of traditional Yanomami territory having been
moved by the "garimpeiro businessmen 11 and the
Federal Police to the so-called "garimpeiros reserves"
which were illegally decreed at the end of the Sarney
government and where many were already operating.
To date, the Collor government has ignored the reaf-
firmation (made on 21 April) of the Federal Court in-
junction ordering that the operation to remove the in-
vaders go ahead and the "garimpeiro reserve" decrees
be disregarded. Other smaller groups (totalling some
3,000 )were never even removed from Paapiu and
Surucucus, the areas covered by the evacuation opera-
tion. Yet more have returned to those areas and, due
the fall in the marketprice of gold, are concentrating
on the extraction of tin-bearing cassiterite. There has,
therefore, been a re- invasion of areas of
Yanomami territory which had previously been
evacuated 2. The government's plan for the
dynamiting of the clandestine airstrips is making slow
progress. Between 2and 15 May the first 14 strips
were destroyed, before thefirst stage was brought to a
halt with the arrival of the rains without having
achieved its target of 30 strips dynamited, The
garimpeiros have meanwhile moved quickly to open al-
ternative paths overland which guarantee their ac-
cess to the goldfields located in regions which have
already been evacuated from bases in the "garim-
peiro reserves" or other landing-strips which have
not been destroyed, Though the government plan
refers to the existence of someone hundred airstrips in-
side Yanomami territory, it lists only as earmarked
for destruction. Of the other strips known to exist, but
not listed, at least 11 are clandestine and used exclusive-
ly by garimpeiros. The plan does not make it clear
whether a further 21 strips belonging to the
authorities will be watched and if they will be sufficient
to allow the health care operations in the area to
goahead. Garimpeiro leaders such as Altino
Machado have publicly mocked the government plan's
chances of success instatements to the local press 3,
The health conditions of the Yanomami is still extreme-
ly serious, The emergency medical operations are con-
tinuingunder conditions even more difficult than those
faced atthc end of the previous government, The mini-
mum requirement for the operations to go ahead, espe-
cially adequate airtransport, are lacking. There have
been frequent cases of the use of thegarimpeiros'
aircraft, which bring in medical doctors andleave
loaded with cassiterite. The malaria epidemic
isspreading, causing more deaths in the Yanomami vil-
lages andgiving rise to alarming situations such as that
around theJeremias airstrip where 80 sick Indians
are gathered. Experts warn that the end of the rains
will bring an even more devastating epidemic with the
formation of mosquito-breeding pools in areas torn
up by garimpeiros' mining equipment The Federal
Government has still not defined its position on the es-
tablishment of consistent measures to preserve the
health of the Yanomami.
30

Environmental Implications of the General
Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade

John Revington

By far the most important agreement regulating in-
ternational commerce is the General Agreement on Tar-
riffs and Trade (GATT).

Initially drafted in 1947 it is currently undergoing one
of its periodic reviews in a complex series of negotia-
tions called the Uruguay Round. They will conclude in
December 1990 and to a large extent determine trends
in world trade for decades to come. They are therefore
of critical importance to the future of lthe world's rain-
forests , and indeed to the future of the world*

There is no opportunity for environmental groups
to have a say in the discussions all those involved have a
consuming interest in economic growth and trade
deregulation. Freer trade will in general be good for
rich economies, bad for Third World economies and
bad for tropical rainforests.

Reducing Export controls

The current talks are aimed at removing controls
on international trades. As far as export controls go,
their removal would ensure developed countries a con-
tinued supply of cheap natural resources from the third
world. For third world countries it would mean they
would have to export food stuffs, even if their own
people did not have enough to eat. Those people
would then place enormous demands on other resour-
ces just to survive. One of those resources would of
course be tropical forests.

Lifting Import Controls.

There is a similiar push for controls of imports to
be lilted. For many third world countries, this would
mean low priced imports from Australia, the US and
Europe being dumped on their local markets. This
would devastate local food production by making it un-
competitive. Farmers would be forced off their land -
probably to be replaced by large scaled procedures -
and into marginal areas like tropical forest.

This scenario is more than mere speculation. In
1986/87, deliberate market manipulation by the USA
lead to serious damage to Costa Rica's agricultural in-
dustry. Small-scale farmers were forced to surrender
their land and clear small plots of rainforest in order to
survive*

In the present GATT discussion large US ham-
burger chains are lobbying their Government to abolish
US beef import quotas* If this happens, more rainforest
in Central and South America will be cleared to supply
beef to the US markets.

The lifting or reduction of import controls would
also have severe environmental repercussions because
import tariffs that used to offset pollution controls
costs would also have to go*

One of the few "advantages" poorer countries have
in a competing freer market is that they can lower costs
by having lower standards of environmental control. ( a
study undertaken for the Brundland commision es-
timates that in 1980 developing nations would have had
to pay over $14 billion to meet US environmental stand-
ards).

The flow of hazardous wastes from rich to poor
countries has flourished for similiar reasons.

Uniform Safety Standards.

To make trade between nations freer there is also a
push for uniformity of environmental regulations. This
is likely to mean standards are reduced to the lowest
common denominator. A free trade agreement be-
tween Canada and the US has meant negotiations are in
progress which are likely to lower standards in Canada
in areas of environmental significance*

Conclusion.

The gains made by conservation groups over the last
decade could be dwarfed by the imminent changes to
GATT.

Environmental protection was not an issue when
GATT was initially drafted in 1947. No effort has been
made since then to take account of this Conservation
and environmental concerns need to be explicitly set out
in GATT, and the policy of Uberauzmg trade by
deregulation must be changed. So long as it remains
the priority efforets at environmental and resource con-
servation will be continue to be underaiined. Like
TFAP, ITTO and the World Bank, GATT works to
take resource control out of the hands of local com-
munities and Third World governments and place it in
the hands of richer countries and multinationals.

This centralising of power in the hands of develop-
ment orientated institutions can only have a detrimental
effect on the environment. The main hope of salvation
from this fate is that Third World countries can present
a united front to block these moves.

SOURCES:

The Environmental implications of the GATT
Negotiations" by Mark Ritchie.

"International Trade and the Environment* by
Steven Shrybman.

Recolonization (Gatt the Uruguay Round of the Third
World) by Chakravarthi Raghavan. -Third World
Network Malaysia.

31

N ether land Opposition to
Tropical Timber Imports Sold
Out By Minister

Public awareness of the problems caused by destruc-
tion of the earth's tropical rainforests has grown enor-
mously over the past few years.

About 65% of Dutch Municipalities have decided to
reduce the use of tropical timber for construction pur-
poses and other end- uses. The State Building Service
have entirely banned the use of tropi cal timber except
for very specific exceptions.

In September last year more than 30 organizations
(including labour unions, consumer organizations and
religious organiza lions) signed a petition calling upon
the government to adopt legislation aimed at reducing
the importing of tropical timber from unsustainable
sources, (see articles in this issue on Sus taxability.)

This public awareness was reflected in the Dutch
government's draft tropical rainforest policy document
adopted in March of this year. Now conservation
NGO's, the timber trade and other interest groups can
comment on the document before a final policy will be
defined later this year, although it is not expected that
that the contents will be altered significantly.

The measures proposed consider other issues besides
those of the tropical timber trade. Some selections
from the draft policy follow:

1. The Dutch government consider it of great
importance thattimber exporting and importing
countries jointly develop and implement a strategy
which aims to end the exploitation of pri mary tropical
forests and to guarantee the continuous supply of tim-
ber.

2. The government Ls looking at ways to draw up
long term plans; The extent of timber supply that is
marketed on the basis of such plans, is determined by
the carrying capacity of the forest. In this way the
potential supply and not the demand will determine the
extent of tropical timber use.

3. A reduction of the consumption of tropical tim-
ber fits into this policy as long as the timber is not
produced sustain ably .Consequently and with a view to
the "signal function" (what the hell does this mean? ed.)
that follows from it, the governe ment announces that
they will promote, from 1995 onwards,* that consump-
tion be restricted to timber coming from
countries/regions with a forest policy and manage-
ment aimed at protection and sustainable reduction.
From now on the use of tropical timber coming from
more reasona ble exploitations will have to be favoured
as far as these can be identified. Application of this tim-
ber deserves a positive ap proach. 33 4, The
Government will promote research on environmentally
sound alternatives for present application instead of
troopical timber.

5. The Government supports the central aim of
the proposal of the Europoean Parliament to regulate
the trade in tropical timber in order to promote the im-
plementation of national forest management plans in
producer countries..Trade in tropical timber would ,

therefore be subject to import quota... Importing of
tropi cal timber products from countries not wishing to
be party to the programme for forest management and
protection of the forests, will ultimately be banned.
The Government will stimulate the proposal to be
tested as regards to practicability.

In considering the implications of these extracts from
the Dutch Government's Draft Policy on Tropical Tim-
ber Importation one can only conclude that Minister
Bukman of the Netherlands, when addressing the
IITO-conference, completely understated the posi-
tion which the Dutch Government has espoused to
its own citizens, when he called for "^a more selective
consumption of tropical timber," It would appear
that both the citizens and Government of the
Netherlands have been sold out by their ap pointed
representative. ^r^W,

- Donald Duck

QUOTES

"Indonesia is not just talking about deforestation; it
is doing something about it,"

- Indonesian government propaganda sheet

*+*

"Whenever conventional forestry places the well-being
of of forests above the well-being of people generally, it
has an inherently anti-social tendency/'

-Australian forester Alf Leslie,

*#*

"First I thought I was fighting for the rubber tappers,
then I thought I was fighting for the Amazon, then I
realised T was fighting for humanity."

- Chico Mendes

** *

"Nothing will change in the Third World if changes
do not take place in the industrialised countries 11

-Jose Lutzenberger, Internationally acclaimed environ-
mentalist and Brazil's new Environment Minister t

"By today's utilisation standards, most of the trees in

these humid tropical forests are, from an industrial

standpoint, clearly weeds." -

James A, Bethel, an international forestry consultant.
***

"By elbowing out 'life' from being the central concern in
organising human society, the dominant paradigm of
knowlege has become a threat to life itself"

Vandana Shiva.

***

Excerpts from:

Rainforests, Now or Never;

Policy recommendations to the Australian

Government to assist in the protection of

the World's Rainforests,

This year in the tropics, an area of rainforest larger
than the state of Victoria will be destroyed. The
onslaught of loggers, cattle grazers, dam builders and
displaced peasants seems unstoppable. It isn't. Last
year an area of rainforest of a similar size was
protected; most of it in Colombia where tribal com-
munities and ecologists forced the government to give
back customary lands and create reserves, protecting
some 16 million hectares of rainforest.

In the coming decade virtually all remaining rainforest
areas in the world will be destroyed, seriously degraded or
actively protected. What is in question is how much can
be protected. And the answer to that may determine the
fate of complex life on Earth. Rainforests are essential in
the maintenance of global climate patterns and atmos-
pheric composition* They provide for the ongoing
functioning of ecosystems around the planet, as welt as
being home to 90 per cent of the species of life on the
planet

Every country, every willing person has a role to play
in turning this monster of annihilation around.
Australia, as the only western country with significant
areas of rainforest is in a key position to protect rain-
forests, but at present our actions cannot serve as a
model for anyone.

Three quarters of the rainforests that existed at the
time of European invasion are gone. Less than half the
remaining area of rainforest in Australia is protected.
Much of the unprotected area will be destroyed in the
coming decade due to industrial forestry which it has
been conclusively shown is incompatible with rainforest
conservation. Protected areas are fragmented and
degraded and will be unable to maintain species diver-
sity in the long term.

All remaining rainforest areas in the country must be
protected if the biological heritage of Australia's rain-
forests is to continue much beyond the next 50 years.
Having protected our own rainforests, the Australian
government will be in a position to assist in the protec-
tion of rainforests in our region, At present any action
by our government to help or force our neighbours to
protect their rainforests will be seen for the hypocrisy
that it is.

The following recommendations seek to map out a
way forward, so that Australia can play a leading role in
preserving the Earth's tropical rainforests. Recommen-
dations to the Australian Government on the Protection
of Rainforests,

33

L Domestic

A, Federal Policy on the protection of remaining
Australian rainforests - protection of all remaining
rainforest areas, - ban lo gging and woodchipping of
rainforests and the export of these products,

B. Ban on the use of rainforest derived wood
products in Federal Government activities. 1) The
ban should include all activities funded by the
Federal Government including State and Local
Government projects and community schemes,

C. Consumer Education campaign, supporting exist-
ing groups working to educate consumers about the
full costs and alternatives of rainforest timbers,

D. Funding for reforestation of rainforest species
to reestablish degraded ecosystems, and in mixed
plantations for both quick growing structural timbers
and long term, high quality timbers.

ILTrade

A*Ban on import of all tropica) timbers except
those derived from ecologically sustainable harvest-
ing of degraded or secondary forests, with the con-
sent and involvement of the traditional owners/users
of the forest.

Given the fact that almost all tropical timber im-
ports are derived from primary forests, there is an im-
perative for the Government to impose such a ban
immediately and place the onus on producers to
show that their timber is environmentally benign,
ULAid

A, Financial and technical support to: L assist
in the creation of protected areas, fauna and flora
reserves, national parks etc. 2. establish the legal
rights of ownership of forest dwellers to the lands they

Recommendations...

traditionally occupy or use and to survey and register
these lands. 3, promote community-based sus-

tainable forest management projects with a priority on
furnishing local needs and non- timber products.

All development assistance, including aid and trade
agreements, should be consonant with, and where pos-
sible should promote respect for, human rights.

In the first place, development assistance should be
made conditional on a respect for human rights includ-
ing the right of tribal peoples to the use and ownership
of their traditional lands. The violation of human
rights should be considered grounds for suspending
aid and trade flows.

Development projects should be elaborated in
cooperation with the local people concerned and
should only go ahead with their free and informed con*
sent. Dialogue between development agencies and
local peoples should be based on a full sharing of infor-
mation. Freedom of information, to ensure a meaning-
ful participation of tribal peoples in the development
process, should be a pre-condition of aid,

IV. International

A, Establish an international working group to
develop definitions for sustainable tropical timber
production that would form the basis for tropical tim-
ber imports. B. Establish a marketing body for sus-
tainably produced rainforest timbers that would pay a
premium to producers.
V. Company Measures

Establish environmental and social guidelines for
Australian companies operating in rainforest areas or
importing products that come from rainforest lands.

***************

DISNEY ESPOUSES
MONKEY WRENCHING

Ever an exponent of adventure, wide open spaces and
wild happenings, cartoonist Carl Barks who drew and
wrote many hundreds of "Uncle Scrooge Adventures"
for Walt Disney's company, featuring Donald Duck and
his three enterprising nephews Hewey, Dewey and
Lewey, makes one of the first re fences to monkey
wrenching in a cartoon story entitled "Uncle Scrooge
and the Paul Buyan Machine 11 (1959). The story has
been reprinted by Gladstone Comics in their Gladstone
Giant edition number 20, March, 1990. Available from:

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge Adventures
P.O. BOX 2079, PRESCOTT, ARIZONA

86302

U.S.A.

IT'LL TAKE MORE TMAN
CANNON SHOTS ID PUT
k MONKEY WRENCH IN
THAT MACHINERY J

THEN, VLl USE
MM/MY

DONALD, ORDER
i2*OC0 MONKEY
WRENCHES
FLOWN HERE
IMMEDIATELY i

ere

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World's Rainforest

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POSTERS

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Ail prices quoted are for laminated posters:
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—set of four $9

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Non Buyers Guide-

- guide to positive shopping - $6

A wholesale discount of 25% available to
environmental organisations for purchases over $100.

3 5

The World Rainforest Report is published quarterly by
The Rainforest Information Centre, P.O. Box 368, Lis-
more 2480 Australia.

Editor: John Revington. Assistant Editor: Tim White,
Nick Hopkins. Calligraphy John Revington

The Rainforest Information Centre is a non-profit or-
ganisation working nationally and internationally to save
the world's rainforests.

World Rainforest Movement Contacts

Martin Khor, Coordinator C/o Third World Network
87 Cantonment Rd., Penang 10250 Malaysia.

Africa

"Simon Muchiru African NGO Environmental Net-
work C/o P.O. Box 53844, Nairobi, Kenya.
Japan

•Yoichi Kuroda, JATAN 501 Shinwa Bldg., 9-17
Sakuroaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Fax 03-770-6380

Australia

John Revington, Rainforest Information Centre P.O.
Box 368, Lismore N.S.W. 2480 Australia, econet:rainfaus

Europe

Marcus Colchester, Cob Cottage, Chadlington, OX7
3NA United Kingdom. Ph;60 876 691 Fax:60 876 743
Email: GE02:WRM

North America
Randall Hayes, Rainforest Action Network, 301
Broadway, Suite A, San Francisco, CA United States
Ph:415 398 4404 Fax:415 398 2732 Econet:RAIN-
FOREST

South Asia

Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science,
Technology & Natural Resource Policy 105 Rajpur Rd.,
Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh 248001 India.

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